A senior South Korean official yesterday said “new progress” on North Korea could come within days, with a local report saying the administration of US President Donald Trump has decided to approve humanitarian sanctions exemptions for Pyongyang.
Seoul has made considerable efforts to bring North Korea to dialogue, added the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.
“There could be some new progress in the coming days” on North Korea, they said.
Washington has long demanded that Pyongyang give up its banned nuclear weapons program, with the country under successive rounds of UN sanctions over it.
The official made the comments while addressing Trump’s scheduled trip to China in April.
Trump last year made repeated overtures to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his barnstorming tour of Asia, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting and even bucking decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power.”
North Korea did not respond to Trump’s offer, and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons.
South Korean daily newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo yesterday reported that Trump’s administration has decided to lift sanctions for humanitarian aid projects to North Korea, citing unnamed government sources.
Analysts said the move would allow South Korea’s non-governmental organizations to provide humanitarian assistance — such as nutritional supplements, medical equipment and water purification systems — to North Korea, an improverished state that has struggled to provide for its people.
Trump has met Kim three times. The US leader once famously declared they were “in love” during his first term, in efforts to reach a denuclearization deal.
However, since a summit in Hanoi in 2019 fell through over differences about what Pyongyang would get in return for giving up its nuclear weapons, no progress has been made between the two countries.
Seoul and Washington earlier this week reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” and cooperation on Seoul’s nuclear-powered submarine plan, a move that has previously drawn an angry response from Pyongyang.
North Korea is set to hold a landmark congress of its ruling party soon, its first in five years.
Ahead of that conclave, Kim ordered the “expansion” and modernization of the country’s missile production.
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