By Shannon Tiezzi
Glyn Davies is in Asia to discuss the Pyongyang problem with Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese leaders.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies is in China Monday and Tuesday for talks with Chinese officials. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Davies will hold talks with Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and China’s own Special Representative on Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei. After leaving Beijing, Davies will spend January 29-30 in Seoul and January 30-31 in Tokyo, according to the U.S. State Department’s press release on the trip.
For Davies, the trip might seem like “déjà vu all over again,” as Yogi Berra would say. Davies made similar tours of East Asia in September and November 2013. During both trips, Davies was seeking to build consensus on how to move forward over North Korea’s controversial nuclear program. Little has changed between then and now, except possibly for the worse — the surprise execution of Kim Jong-Un’s uncle raised questions over both the regime’s stability and its future direction, and there is some evidence that North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear or missile test. Meanwhile, U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae remains imprisoned in North Korea, carrying out a sentence of 15 years’ of hard labor (although his recent appearance on camera hints that Pyongyang may be willing to negotiate his release).
All in all, the signs are not great for diplomacy, despite recent overtures from North Korea to its southern neighbor (including during a press conference by North Korea’s UN ambassador Sin Son-Ho). In fact, as the Associated Press has reported, Davies’ visit could be taken as a discouraging sign given that China’s Wu Dawei was supposed to visit the United States. That visit was cancelled, potentially a signal of Beijing’s pessimism over such talks.
Read the full story at The Diplomat