TOKYO — North Korea on Wednesday signaled a willingness to freeze its uranium enrichment program in exchange for confidence-building incentives from the United States, such as a suspension of sanctions and a resumption of food aid.
The statement, carried by North Korea’s state-run news agency and attributed to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, was the first sign that the North’s new young leader, Kim Jong- Un, might be open to a deal discussed last year and then put on hold after the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il.
The statement had a chiding tone — it criticized Washington for linking a humanitarian issue with a security issue — but it had none of the bellicose rhetoric typical of Pyongyang’s foreign pronouncements.
The United States should “build confidence” by increasing the amount of food aid included in the deal, the statement said.
Until Wednesday, North Korea had never commented on the aid-for-weapons talks under discussion; it also had not issued a direct message to Washington since the elder Kim’s death Dec. 17.
In the days before Kim died, the Obama administration had been planning to resume food aid to North Korea, according to U.S. officials briefed on discussions but unauthorized to speak on the record. The U.S. hoped to use that gesture to secure a suspension of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program and a possible return to multination denuclearization talks.
Even now, a deal would be politically fraught for both sides.
Kim Jong-Un, who has risen to power with his father’s death, would gain a chance to address his country’s massive food shortages, but in turn would have to relinquish part of a weapons program that North Korea uses to bolster its security and its national pride.
The Obama administration, after years of distance, now wants closer contact with the reclusive country as a way to influence its behavior. But any move toward engagement runs counter to skepticism about Pyongyang’s willingness to give up its weapons.
North Korea has used previous denuclearization deals to extract food and energy aid, only to back out on its promises.
At some point “there will be a deal,” said Robert Gallucci, president of the MacArthur Foundation and the former chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea. “We’ll be giving them (aid) and trying to buy them off. Some people will say they’ll never give up their nuclear weapons program. Others say we’ve got to try. It’s deja vu.”
