After months of deadlock,... nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States are firmly back on track.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit the regime next month has been confirmed... and a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is on the horizon as well.
Oh Jung-hee reports.
Last week's inter-Korean summit declaration stipulates... that North Korea will allow experts to oversee the dismantlement of its Dongchang-ri missile engine test site and launch pad.
It also says, if Washington takes "corresponding measures," Pyeongyang is also willing to dismantle for good its Yeongbyeon nuclear complex -- the regime's key nuclear site that's home to plutonium production facilities and a uranium enrichment plant.
With U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo soon visiting North Korea for the fourth time to lay the groundwork for the second Kim-Trump summit,... it's believed North Korea-U.S. nuclear negotiations will now revolve around how the dismantlement of Dongchang-ri and Yeongbyeon will take place... and what Washington can offer in exchange.

"If Secretary Pompeo visits North Korea, or Pyeongyang and Washington start communicating through their channel in Vienna, then the key focus will be on how certain nuclear facilities and weapons systems can be dismantled... and how that dismantlement can be verified. Also tied in with this will be when the two sides could declare an end to the Korean War."

The 'corresponding measure' North Korea wants the most from the U.S. is a declaration of an end to the Korean War.
That, despite being only a political declaration -- not a treaty -- helps end hostilities between the two sides, while opening the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations.
The two Koreas aim to declare an end to the Korean War within this year and Washington is not so opposed to it.
But that still remains to be seen... as the U.S. has not made any official mention of it after the inter-Korean summit last week... and for now, wants to first see North Korea take concrete steps towards denuclearization.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.