North Korean Defective Diplomat Says Pyongyang Ready to Return to Nuclear Talks If Trump Wins US Election

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Roman Harak BATU)

JAKARTA - North Korea wants to reopen nuclear talks with the United States if Donald Trump wins the November presidential election, while working on a new negotiating strategy, a Pyongyang diplomat who recently defected to South Korea told Reuters.

Ri Il Gyu's name was widely discussed last month after he left Cuba for South Korea, making him the highest-ranking Pyongyang diplomat to defect since 2016.

In his first interview with international media, Ri said North Korea has set Russia, Japan and the United States as its top foreign policy priorities for this year and beyond.

Ri said that while strengthening ties with Russia, Pyongyang wants to reopen nuclear talks if Trump, who engaged in a fierce dispute and unprecedented diplomacy with North Korea during his previous term, wins the presidential election in November.

He explained that Pyongyang diplomats are mapping out a strategy for that scenario, in order to lift sanctions on weapons programs, state sponsors of terrorism status and obtain economic aid.

His comments signal a possible change in North Korea's current stance, after recent statements dismissing the possibility of dialogue with Washington and warning of armed confrontation.

"Kim Jong Un does not know much about international relations and diplomacy, or how to make strategic judgments," he said, as reported by Reuters on August 1.

"This time, the foreign ministry will definitely gain power and take over, and it will not be easy for Trump to tie North Korea's hands and feet again for four years without giving anything," he said.

Trump is known to have met with Kim Jong-un. Their summit in Vietnam in 2019 failed due to sanctions. Ri blamed Leader Kim's decision to entrust nuclear diplomacy to an "inexperienced and clueless" military commander. Previously, the two leaders also met in Singapore in June 2018, and after Vietnam, they met in the demilitarized zone of the two Koreas (DMZ) in June 2019.

He joined the North Korean Foreign Ministry in 1999, Reuters previously reported. One of Ri's duties at the embassy was to block Cuba's attempts to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

"I have done everything to prevent that from happening, but establishing relations with Cuba is the best thing South Korea has done since last year," he said.

"It is a model example of how the tide of history has turned, and where the normal civilization of the international community is heading," he said.

Ri flew out of Cuba with his wife and child last month.

"I bought a flight ticket and called my wife and child to tell them about my decision, six hours before the defection. I didn't say South Korea, but said, let's live abroad," he said.

Long before that, after attending a French school in Algeria and living in Cuba with her late father, a state-run reporter, Ri said he had fantasized about life in South Korea since he was a child, but never acted on his escape until he was harassed by a diplomatic colleague for refusing his bribery request.

Then the defining moment came when Pyongyang flat-out denied his request for medical treatment in Mexico, at his own expense, for a broken nerve disc in his neck.

“It exploded all the hatred I had harbored for the regime,” he said.