North Korean officials on Thursday reportedly requested a meeting headed by a U.S. general to discuss the repatriation of American troop remains from the Korean War a day after failing to appear at scheduled talks between the two sides in the Korean border village of Panmunjom.
The U.S. State Department confirmed talks were back on for Sunday following the North Koreans’ failure to show.
“Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol agreed in his dialogue with Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo to have his team meet with an American team in Panmunjom on or around July 12th to move forward with the repatriation of American service members’ remains,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Friday, according to the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo. “Mid day July 12th they contacted us and offered to meet on July 15th. We will be ready.”
The Panmunjom “peace village” is on the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) and is commonly used for negotiations between communist North Korea and the free world. Dictator Kim Jong-un has met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Panmunjom twice this year.
Nauert’s statement did not mention reports circulating Thursday that the North Koreans had initially agreed to meet on June 12 and that American negotiators had appeared in the “peace village” only to find no North Korean officials present to discuss matters with them. According to an anonymous American official speaking to the Washington Post, the Americans were fully prepared to meet North Korean negotiators and had no notice of the meeting being canceled, “but it just didn’t happen. They didn’t show.”
South Korean news agency Yonhap and JoongAng Ilbo suggest the North Koreans did not attend the meeting because the American representatives were civilian government members, not soldiers. Following their absence at the scheduled meeting, anonymous sources tell both news outlets that Pyongyang reached out requesting that at least one U.S. general be part of the conversation about the remains.
“North Korea apparently wants a U.S. general to appear at the table to quickly finalize the repatriation issue,” an anonymous source told JoongAng Ilbo. “It is likely that military generals from the U.S. and North Korea will take part in the meeting.”
Yonhap notes that Washington, in contrast, “is apparently seeking a ‘government-to-government’ approach to receive the remains of service members killed in the 1950-53 Korean War” to avoid making it appear to be a military operation, but rather civilian negotiations.
Nauert only told reporters that the talks were on for Sunday and that both sides will be there. Notably, neither side has published a list of who will be discussing the repatriation of Americans during the summit, which leaves open the question of whether North Korea got what it wanted in the form of a U.S. general appearing at the talks.
During the June 12 meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korea agreed to hand over the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the active part of the Korean War – which technically never ended, but hostilities ended following an armistice in 1953. JoongAng suggests that an estimated 200 sets of remains from the war are known to be waiting for repatriation in North Korea. Trump initially caused some confusion at a rally last month by saying that North Korea had already returned the bodies, claiming that the 200 soldiers were already home, but the State Department confirmed that much negotiation lay ahead to ensure their return.
The failed July 12 meeting was reportedly scheduled during Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang last week, which Pompeo described as “productive” but the North Korean Foreign Ministry objected to as a failed opportunity for closeness because of Pompeo’s “gangster-like” demand for complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization on North Korea’s part. The Foreign Ministry was careful to add positive sentiments: despite its outrage at Pompeo, the Ministry declared, “We still cherish our good faith in President Trump.”
Kim Jong-un repeated that goodwill in a recent letter to President Trump, which the American head of state published on Twitter Thursday. “A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea. Great progress being made!” Trump wrote alongside the letter in which Kim thanked Trump for “the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr. President and for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement.”
The same day Trump published the letter, the U.S. delegation to the United Nations demanded the Security Council act to stop all imports of refined oil into North Korea, arguing that persuasive evidence indicates both Russia and China have been helping North Korea violate sanctions.