US and South Korea mulling incentives for Kim in nuclear talks

Bloomberg

The US and South Korea are discussing “corresponding measures” to reward North Korea’s steps towards denuclearisation, South Korea’s foreign minister said, as President Donald Trump and Kim
Jong-un prepare for a possible second summit.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a news conference in Seoul that the allies were reviewing various packages of incentives that Washington could bring to the table in the meeting. While Kang provided few details other than to say restarting stalled business projects were being discussed, the term can cover everything from sanctions relief to moves to formalise end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
“Between South Korea and the United States, we are closely consulting what kinds of denuclearisation measures should be followed and what the US and the international community can do as corresponding measures,” she said. She said she expected nuclear talks to pick up speed.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed that Kim Yong Chol — a senior North Korean official who delivered Kim’s letter to Trump before their first summit — will transit through Beijing en route to another location. CNN reported earlier that Kim Yong Chol was due to meet US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in Washington.
Negotiations between the US and North Korea have sputtered since Trump and Kim Jong-un signed an agreement during their first meeting in June to “work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” without defining the phrase or setting any deadlines. North Korea argues the deal implied a step-by-step approach, where each of its actions are met by US responses, while Trump administration officials assert that Kim Jong-un accepted his country’s “final, fully verified denuclearisation.”
Kim Jong-un warned in his New Year’s address this month that he could be forced to take a “new path” in talks if Trump didn’t relax sanctions pressure.
He pressed for US concessions to reward his decisions to halt weapons tests and dismantle some testing facilities, without offering steps. “If the US takes a credible action in response to our proactive and preemptive efforts and responds to the corresponding measures, the relationship between the two countries will move forward at a good and rapid pace through the process of taking more certain and innovative steps is,” Kim said.