김현욱 박사 대담 - 北 핵실험장 폐쇄 약속 이행, 북미 비핵화 급속 진행

To discuss this issue in more detail, we have with us in the studio Professor Kim Hyun-wook from the Korea National Diplomacy Academy. Professor, thank you for coming in today.

My pleasure.

1 - As the previous report just said, North Korea has announced it will dismantle the Punggye-ri nuclear test site next week, and it will invite foreign journalists to come watch. The question I want to ask is, why do you think Pyongyang is doing this? What message is North Korea trying to send?

2 - Pyongyang has invited journalists to come watch, but no nuclear inspectors, real specialists who can verify whether the site has been dismantled properly. This is not a good sign, wouldn't you say?

3 - Another notable absentee from the list of invitees was journalists from Japan. That omission is quite conspicuous, especially as Japan was one of the six-party talks members the last time North Korea made agreements to denuclearize. Do you think it is a deliberate snub?

4 - Now as mentioned in the report earlier, it is not the first time North Korea has invited journalists to watch a demonstration of this kind. In 2008, journalists and diplomats were invited to watch the cooling tower of the Yongbyun nuclear reactor being destroyed. Iconic images at the time, but later revealed just to be a PR stunt. Pyongyang continued to develop nuclear weapons secretly anyway, and that tower's destruction was said to have little consequence to their nuclear weapons program. Is there anything different this time? What signs have they shown that we can take them seriously?

5 - Let's move on to the actual North Korea-U.S. Summit. I'm sure right now, behind-the-scenes Washington and Pyongyang are busy negotiating the terms of the upcoming summit next month. How do you think preparations are going? Do you think they will be able to reach an agreement?

6 - Last week North Korean state media mentioned, quote, "New Alternatives" for resolving its issues with the U.S. Now Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, has also mentioned over the last few days that if Pyongyang does take significant steps towards denuclearization, the U.S. would help North Korea achieve prosperity on par with South Korea. Now this all seems to be pointing towards economic incentives towards denuclearization, wouldn't you agree?

6.a. But we have gone down the road of economic incentives in the past. Is this not a dangerous slope to go down again?

7 - There are also tentative reports emerging, which say Chinese President Xi Jinping might also come to Singapore for the North Korea-U.S. summit. I would relegate those reports as just rumours for now, but do you think it could be possible?

8 - Rather than Xi Jinping, should it not be President Moon Jae-in going? Or at least both? Could the North Korea-U.S. summit turn into a four-way summit?

9 - The hotline between the South and North Korean leaders has been installed fo