now let's get an expert's take on the breakdown of last weekend's North Korea
US nuclear talks in Stockholm many had hoped for a positive outcome but it
appears that was wishful thinking especially now that we have the benefit
of hindsight I'm glad to say we joined on skype again by dr. mark Peabody an
independent Asian affairs analyst who has followed North Korea s relations for
nearly 30 years so mark in your decades of studying
North Korea US relations there's probably nothing that shocks you anymore
and this is likely just a bump in the road as we've been hearing but were you
surprised the North walked out and then proceeded to go on this verbal volley
against the US negotiators good morning mark I was surprised even though it was
delineated as a day and a half meeting it made perfect sense that the Swedes
had invited both sides to come back in a couple of weeks and for the north to say
that they weren't explicitly coming back that was a surprise and in fact it
appears that their foreign ministry spokesman statement released some hours
ago was a canned pre-prepared statement so they were expecting it so
it seems to me that they've been looking back at the past hundred days and
through all their other means of measuring and detecting what's going on
within the thinking of the Trump administration they don't see much
change if any since Hanoi and I think this is the crux of the problem yeah it
could have also been their way of kind of getting back at the US after
President Trump so swiftly walked out of the Hanoi summit as well but the US has
agreed to Sweden's proposal that the two sides come back in a couple of weeks to
have another go at it North Korea is yet to commit to doing
that in your opinion what do you think would have to happen over the next
fortnight to entice Pyongyang back one of two ways but it's going to come from
President Trump either a private letter that
conveys that's brought to either the dprk mission in New York or more likely
to Panmunjeom and hand it over to a North Korean counterpart or as we
learned on June 30th or late June a tweet where President Trump expresses
something that's inviting and perhaps soothing and perhaps a little bit
enticing that's the only thing that's going to change but my perception is
that the North Koreans have a lower view of this State Department's negotiating
capabilities then did the North Korean diplomats under President Clinton or the
North Korean diplomats under george w bush the results are really nothing to
write home about at all well in regards to Twitter let's see if President Trump
can take a little bit of time out of his tweeting schedule where he's attacking
the Democrats over this impeachment inquiry to tweet something out towards
North Korea but getting back to our questions it really seems that despite
this hiccup in Stockholm both sides would welcome a third summit between
their leaders however if the lower-level officials like Steven P Gunn and the
North Korean delegation can't thrash out something concrete to take to trump and
Kim in the meantime how do you rate the chances of a third North Korea US summit
being more than just another photo op especially for Kim jong-un I think
president Trump is good enough to be essentially a photo op but as a holding
pattern because from his point of view ignoring all the other problems he's
dealing with I think that he thinks that yeah I can have more summits in 2020
it's no problem the Democrats will be busy with their primary season and he
doesn't have to worry about anything until the convention in the summer so he
thinks he's got time the problem is how do you produce something that would be
an agreement worth signing and worth standing on as part of your campaign
so the North Koreans in the meantime could open up this these possibilities
of of increasing intermediate range and intercontinental range missiles and
possibly doing even a nuclear test and then we're back to the firing fury of
2017 so I think President Trump thinks he's got time I think Kim jong-un thinks
he does not and I think that's where we're gonna have to see what crunches
out of these processes in the coming weeks well you kind of touched upon it
there but are you slightly concerned that if this turns into some kind of
extended standoff between the north and the US we could see the situation slip
back to the tensions the fire and fury statements we enjoyed before the
Singapore summit especially if the North Korean side think president Trump might
be voted out next year and they might have to deal with a Democratic president
or even although it doesn't look overly likely that he could be potentially
removed from office before the election anyway you know as good as it was for
the North Koreans to be able to have their leader meet the president face to
face which no other president would do they look at the United States as kind
of an organism it's one of the four imperialist powers in the world but the
most benign one it has a certain global reach that no other country has so in a
sense they don't care who they're dealing with but they know that certain
opportunities with President Trump but they always think that we can outlast
the United States we'll find ways to muddle through but I think personally
that the United States needs to treat the Korean issues more as the United
States had treated the arab-israeli issues as an honest broker having Camp
David summits as was done in 1979 that helped arrive at the israeli-egyptian
peace treaty the Camp David two summits between the Israelis and the
Palestinians that a President Clinton invested
two weeks of his time then that's how it has to be done this issue is really no
less complicated and it's extremely serious even though the United States
cannot exactly be called an honest broker we're really one of the adversary
is one of the combatants under the United Nations command in the Korean War
but nonetheless it has to be solved at the highest level with a lot of staff
support but I think it has to be done in one fell swoop over a period of a week
of over two weeks and whether it's done this year or more likely next year I
think that's the only way the United States is going to get this job done
once and for all well dr. mark Peaberry it would be
interesting to see a president Trump devote two weeks of his life to
concentrating on one particular issue we'll have to see whether that happens
but we appreciate you making time to speak with us on a Sunday evening over
there on the east coast of the United States and de-lovely
yeah we'll see things moving forward in a more positive direction very hopefully
so thank you thank you so much