After the summit between the president of the united states, Donald Trump, and north Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Singapore in June of last year, the negotiations on disarmament has not taken any step forward. The representatives that were chosen to continue the conversations were not met in several months.
The frosty relations have re-made the role of Sweden as a kind of confidence-building partner, the greater the current. On Monday ended a three-day meeting between representatives of North and south Korea and the united states, in cooperation with the international peace research institute Sipri, whose experts also participated at the meeting. Minister for foreign affairs Margot Wallström describes in an interview with DN the atmosphere as good and open.
the Discussions focused on nuclear disarmament and the verification of this, if the security arrangements in the region, but also about economic development and what north Korea would have to win to credibly dismantle its nuclear weapons.
There will be more meetings in Sweden.
north Korea from anchorage countries have been invited to Sweden for a meeting now, in the spring, experience DN. Invited are representatives from North and south Korea, the united states, China, Russia, Japan, and Sweden. Several of those invited have responded with positive signals. The countries all have crucial roles in the talks with north Korea.
Sweden also participates as a partner of a meeting of the united nations directed on the Korean peninsula, which is also right now being prepared to take place in the spring.
In February, is expected a new summit will take place between the Trump and Kim, a meeting which according to Bloomberg have been misplaced to Vietnam.
As skyddsmakt of the united states since several decades, Sweden has a special role, and is a country that also has long-standing diplomatic relations with the Dprk. With the trust of the countries involved, Sweden has been able to contribute as an interlocutor and host of the meetings.
the round table in Stockholm attended by, among others, the north Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, the U.S. special representative for north Korea Stephen Biegun and a south Korean negotiator, Lee Do-hoon.
In Washington met last week also to the two countries ‘ envoys, at the same time as Donald Trump met with north Korean vice party chairman, Kim Jong-Chol.
– About the same time, the meeting was held in Sweden. It fit very well in a more intense phase of the contacts, ” says Margot Wallström.
of the war, it is difficult to create trust. According to a new report by the u.s. think tank Center for strategic and international studies used at least one of about twenty kept secret bases in north Korea as an operational headquarters for the missile.
the Relatively greatest progress has been reached in the talks between the South and the North, says Margot Wallström:
– According to my south Korean colleague, you don’t talk anymore about a reunion between the North and the South, but that one may be happy if you have a peaceful neighbor. Here it is, I think, important that north Korea begin to understand more what are the mechanisms that govern economic development.