South Korea in Hot Water with North Korea after US Failing Talks

South Korea has once again found itself in hot water as North Korea pulled out of the liaison office on Friday. This has brought President Moon Jae-in’s policy of engaging with the communist state to the fore.

According to experts, Moon has reached an endpoint in his ability to play mediator after the collapse of the second summit last month between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.  Now, North Korea is pushing South Korea to follow through with an ambitious agenda of inter-Korean projects that had been stalled by international sanctions.

Jenny Town, a Korea specialist at the Stimson Centre in Washington DC acknowledged that Moon is in an awkward position. Jenny said the South Korean President was overly optimistic and positive about being able to engineer the situation. “He was very successful at the beginning to bring both sides to the table but he hasn’t been able to influence what they think.” She said the US and North Korea had agreed to a general promise to work toward the ‘complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during their first Summit in Singapore on June 12. However, they had been unable to reach agreement on details as the North demands the removal of crippling sanctions in exchange for steps already taken. The issue became more complicated when Trump tweeted on Friday that he had ordered ‘the withdrawal of those additional sanctions’ US officials later explained that the tweet referred to the additional North Korea sanctions under consideration.

Because of the unsuccessful Summit, North Korea rebuilt a launch site at Sohae and withdrew the staff from the liaison office it shared with South Korea.