North Korea has replaced its deputy chief envoy to the United Nations, a de facto liaison official with Washington, sources said Thursday.
Jang Il-hoon, a relatively unknown career diplomat, has recently arrived in New York to succeed Han Song-ryol who had been in charge of bilateral contact with the U.S. government before returning home last month.
The change comes as North Korea’s offer of talks was rebuffed by the U.S. which doubted its sincerity.
Jang was formerly the director of the international organization office at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry and also served as a consular at its mission to the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland.
Other than that, his profile is obscure, said a South Korean government official.
It is uncertain if Jang would perform as the North’s part of the so-called “New York Channel,” which has facilitated talks between the two governments on several occasions.
Most recently when they reached the so-called “Leap-Day Deal” in February 2012, in which the North agreed to suspend missile and nuclear tests in exchange for nutritional aid from the U.S. The North broke the agreement with a missile test months later.
“North Korea is vying for a chance to talk to either South Korea or the United States although I remain pessimistic about their chances. In this light, the New York Channel is going to be important for North Korea,” said Jo Dong-joon, professor of international relations at Seoul National University.
U.S. State Department officials remained cautious about reactivating the New York Channel. After acknowledging that the United States “has means of talking” to North Korea, State Department spokesperson Jennifer Psaki refused to comment on whether the New York Channel was still viable.
“I see no convergence of interest between North Korea and the United States,” said Daniel Pinkston, the International Crisis Group’s deputy project director for Northeast Asia.
“Unless North Korea abandons its nukes or unless the United States suddenly ignores international law, domestic law, treaty obligations and so forth, talk is going to be meaningless.”
North Korea was recently snubbed at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Brunei, the largest security conference in the Asia Pacific. The forum which gathered together top diplomats from Southeast Asia, China, the U.S., Russia, Japan and South Korea called for the North to give up its nuclear programs.
On Wednesday evening, North Korea conveyed that South Korean company representatives could enter the now-closed Gaeseong industrial complex to prevent damage to factory machinery in the coming monsoon season. South Korea responded on Thursday by asking for talks between working-level officials.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
