US-North Korea: Promoting 'Channel 2' Dialogue

On November 10, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam stated that although the U.S. is engaging in some form of direct contact with North Korea, this has yielded very little progress toward conducting any serious dialogue.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam. (Source: Yonhapnews)

According to the VNA correspondent in Seoul, in a report submitted to the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee of the South Korean National Assembly, Mr. Lim stated that there are regular exchanges and contacts between the US and South Korea conducted through the 1.5 dialogue or academic exchanges, but no detailed progress has been recorded.

In response to a question from a congressman, Mr. Lim stated that the US efforts and approach toward North Korea are, to some extent, yielding some results.

On the same day, Ralph Cossa, President of the Pacific Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former special assistant to the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), said that the U.S. and North Korea are likely to participate in multilateral discussions at the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) meeting in December.

Mr. Cossa stated that North Korea had been invited and was likely to participate in the aforementioned conference.

He also stated that North Korean officials are exploring the US government's willingness to engage in formal dialogue and under what conditions.

According to Rossa, the US is also seeking to leverage informal discussions between low-level North Korean officials and American analysts and advisors – known as Channel 2 dialogue – to influence and advance discussions between high-level government officials, also known as Channel 1 dialogue.

Channel 2 dialogue has been maintained sporadically this year, despite Pyongyang conducting more missile tests and US President Donald Trump threatening to attack North Korea with "fire and fury."

The previous day, US Defense Secretary James Mattis declared that the US supports a diplomatic solution to the North Korean crisis, after President Donald Trump warned that "time is running out" for Pyongyang.

According to Vietnam+