U.S. envoy for North Korea to retire after Trump rejects unconditional talks

[webfact]

U.S. envoy for North Korea to retire after Trump rejects unconditional talks

By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun arrives at a meeting with the media in Bangkok, Thailand December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.

 

South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led U.S. contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

 

Yun's departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

 

The special envoy's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.

 

While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trump's policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yun's departure.

 

Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told U.S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

 

"It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out."

 

Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

 

In the CBS interview, Yun noted that North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests." Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

 

Some East Asia analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.

 

"This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy."

 

Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the U.S. government at a critical moment."

 

CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences "per se," but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis.

 

Yun nevertheless appeared in step with recent administration positions when speaking to CBS.

 

"We need to get it right," he was quoted as saying. "We need to make sure if there are talks it will lead to denuclearization. We need a whole of government approach."

 

NO POLICY CHANGE

 

The U.S. State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision."

 

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top U.S. national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

 

"If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more."

 

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks.

 

Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

 

Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected.

 

Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks."

 

"I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

 

On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

 

In another reference to the risk of war, Trump said on Monday: "We're talking about tremendous potential loss of lives, numbers that nobody's even contemplated, never thought of."

 

In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations."

 

A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in U.S.-North Korean tensions.

 

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances.

 

"He’s such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

 

Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations.

 

Meanwhile, Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. Congress, former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts have criticized the administration’s failure to fill this and other positions.

 

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting Josh Smith, Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Steve Holland and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry, James Dalgleish and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-28

[Emster23]

How about that art of the deal Donnie? Great negotiating skills, kinda like how you amended TPP treaty...

[spidermike007]

The most amazing part of this whole discussion, is that the last thing in the world North Korea is going to do, is give up their nuclear weapons. It is not only their chief deterrent, but it also represents tens of billions of dollars invested in the program. For the US to even consider asking for this as a condition, shows just how little interest they have in negotiating, or even talking. 

 

Tiny DT. The art of moving America backwards, and lowering the quality of life for the average American. The art of I cannot make a deal to save my life. The art of losing talent in droves, and replacing them with sycophantic fools, devoid of talent or experience. The art of not having a diplomatic bone in his body, and destroying long held alliances, with hate, hubris and a horrible lack of intelligence, vision and talent.

[mrwebb8825]

Again with the lame insults without a single new thought or idea. Do you guys have these replies in a cut-n-paste folder?

President Trump's stance on NK has been the same since we was campaigning, let alone being elected. Give up the bomb and we'll help feed and clothe your people and bring you into the 21st century. Now that some last minute Obama appointee quits you break out the handy dandy hate folder.

If this problem hadn't been kicked down the road for decades, we wouldn't be in this situation today. Now that he shipped his sister off to play kissy face with Moon for 2 days, you think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, that ain't a tunnel, it's a missile silo and that light is it launching finally after 40+ yrs of threatening to do it.

How soon you forget that every time their balls get squeezed their "willing to come to the table" and every time it's a fresh pack of lies and deceit just to get something from bleeding, trusting, foolish hearts.

If these sanctions had been put in place and upheld 40 years ago, before Putin and Xi we'd have had a unified Korea already without a nuclear threat to the world.

President Trump inherited a huge problem and at least he has the guts to stand up to it. Kim would rather die and take all his people with him than admit he's a loser. That is the most unfortunate reality we find ourselves in and that is the problem that needs to be dealt with.

[baboon]

5 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Again with the lame insults without a single new thought or idea. Do you guys have these replies in a cut-n-paste folder?

President Trump's stance on NK has been the same since we was campaigning, let alone being elected. Give up the bomb and we'll help feed and clothe your people and bring you into the 21st century. Now that some last minute Obama appointee quits you break out the handy dandy hate folder.

If this problem hadn't been kicked down the road for decades, we wouldn't be in this situation today. Now that he shipped his sister off to play kissy face with Moon for 2 days, you think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, that ain't a tunnel, it's a missile silo and that light is it launching finally after 40+ yrs of threatening to do it.

How soon you forget that every time their balls get squeezed their "willing to come to the table" and every time it's a fresh pack of lies and deceit just to get something from bleeding, trusting, foolish hearts.

If these sanctions had been put in place and upheld 40 years ago, before Putin and Xi we'd have had a unified Korea already without a nuclear threat to the world.

President Trump inherited a huge problem and at least he has the guts to stand up to it. Kim would rather die and take all his people with him than admit he's a loser. That is the most unfortunate reality we find ourselves in and that is the problem that needs to be dealt with.

So far according to you, Trump is dealing with it this way:

"Give up the bomb and we'll help feed and clothe your people and bring you into the 21st century."

The reply?

'No.'

Hardly what you call masterful deal making, is it? So what now?

[boomerangutang]

Are we tired of winning so much, yet?

McMaster also quit today.  Hope Hicks yesterday.

Trump may or may not fill those slots, but the choices are slim.

He will need someone who....

>>>   adulates him, profusely laying praise upon the-man-who-can-do-no-wrong (scant different than what Kim requires) 

>>>   never takes issue with what the great sage decrees

>>>   doesn't give him more than a paragraph to read (and it must have color pictures, ...and phrases which praise him)

>>>   doesn't have wife beating or seducing little kids in his background - or at least nothing sordid that the FBI could find.

 

It will be tough to find any American who will fill the job vacancies.  Maybe Trump should look in Moscow - he'll have better luck filling personnel slots with the pickings from there.   Any American who takes a job with Trump is going to have black marks on their resume, and stands a better than 50-50 chance of going to Jail.   Trump tarnishes everyone who gets near him.

[Sir Dude]

The West has exhausted "talks" with this worse than fascist regime for decades. What do the do-gooders hope to achieve by further talks? The West should just cut off all contact with them and see what happens as they have given enough succor to these evil manipulating nutjobs.

[baboon]

10 minutes ago, Sir Dude said:

The West has exhausted "talks" with this worse than fascist regime for decades. What do the do-gooders hope to achieve by further talks? The West should just cut off all contact with them and see what happens as they have given enough succor to these evil manipulating nutjobs.

I suppose what any do-gooder is trying to achieve is to do good. Why is this spoken of as a bad thing nowadays? 

 

I don't imagine they would be bothered one little bit if the West cut off all contact with them. Quite the opposite, in fact. It isn't like we are trading partners in the first place. They keep their nuclear deterrent and carry on as normal, which is what they want anyway.

[boomerangutang]

Trump interaction with world leaders, .....it's even worse than you thought.

The video clip below is several months old, but still valid as it pertains to how thoroughly screwed Trump is when trying to talk to big boys.