Experts attribute summit turnaround to compromise

북미회담 취소 후 준비 재개, 현재 북-미 상황은 어떤가?

Just last week, President Trump cancelled the hotly anticipated summit... only to hint at the possibility of reinstating it... within hours after making that statement.
The flurry of preparatory meetings are being held to make up for lost time.
Lee Ji-won delves deeper into how these sessions are boosted by his shakeup.
The North Korea-U.S. summit was on and then off, but now preparations for it have been coming fast.
Experts attribute that to change in attitude from the North.

"Before, North Korea would not show up to meetings and play 'hard to get.' And it did that again a few weeks ago, according to a White House official, by not going to Singapore. But with Trump's sudden cancellation of the meeting, the North has been active in expressing its determination that the talks go ahead."

Thanks to the shake up, experts also say finding a consensus now would've become much easier.

"The U.S. seems to have the upper hand in the situation with the North as of now,... so it's expected that Pyongyang has agreed to a lot of what Washington wants."

This could mean, says the expert, that the North might have accepted what it has reportedly been sensitive about, the so-called "front-loaded agreement."

"Considering how the inspection and verification of nuclear facilities takes a long time, it's likely that the U.S. requested that the North move all of its ready-made nuclear warheads outside of its borders. And while the regime seems to have protested this, it may have agreed... in view of the fact that the summit preparations have resumed."

But it's not that the North has to fit itself perfectly into a framework set up by the U.S. against its will.
In fact, the North showed satisfaction with and anticipation for the so-called "Trump model" after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's second visit to Pyongyang, where the regime's state-run Rodong Newspaper said Pompeo and leader Kim Jong-un reached a "satisfactory agreement."

"Before Trump called off the meeting, he had hinted on numerous occassions that the talks were going well. And I think it's because the two reached some sort of common understanding and prior agreement... that the latest preparations were able to proceed rapidly and simply continue from where they had left off."

And some say the latest Panmunjom talks' inclusion of Sung Kim -- the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator -- could have been meant to better fine tune the details.

"The main structures of the deal are likely to have already been settled by the White House and Pompeo. And now, for the details, and to get Pyongyang's agreement and understanding in that process, it seems Sung Kim has been called in... with his ample experience in dealing with the North, and as the only Korean-speaker in the State Department."

Experts say that with what look like the finishing touches being made, they're hopeful that a satisfactory deal will b