By Steve Miller | February 20, 2019 05:36 AM |
SEOUL - With the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un one week away, final preparations are underway in Vietnam for the Feb. 27-28 talks in Hanoi. It remains unclear what the outcome between the two leaders will yield. But former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho tells reporters that Pyongyang’s long-term goal was to remove the U.S. and United Nations presence from the Korean Peninsula.
During Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s speech, he said Pyongyang called for a “staged approach” for the creation of a “peace regime” on the Korean Peninsula.
Thae explained that Kim suggested a buffer zone that would reduce the possibility of military conflict between the two Koreas and for it to be gradually expanded from the border between the two Koreas throughout the whole peninsula as one way of achieving peace.
Thae said if Trump issues an end of war declaration at the Hanoi summit, which many analysts say is possible, then North Korea could assert there is no reason for the U.N. Command to remain on the peninsula, because the “reason for the U.N. Command is to prevent any possible military confrontations between the two Koreas.”
Speaking at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul last week, Bruce Bennett, senior defense researcher at the Rand Corp., also identified possible long-term objectives for Kim Jong Un.
“I think he wants to see U.S. disengagement from the peninsula, I think he wants to be in a position where he can put significant pressure on South Korea, and I think he needs to solidify his internal support,” Bennett said.
Regardless of the analysis by intelligence agencies and experts, Bennett said Kim’s objectives are not governed by what we think is possible for North Korea to achieve.
“What matters for him (Kim Jong Un), that’s what he thinks he can accomplish, because that’s going to drive those actions,” Bennett said.
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