Caricatures depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un outside a shop in Seoul on May 16. AFP-Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

Despite the continued deadlock in denuclearization talks, there is room for South Korea to help the United States and the North understand each other's positions in an effort to narrow the gap between the two, South Korean lawmakers and experts said Friday.

A key rationale is that Washington is "gradually leaning toward" a phased and step-by-step approach in settling the ongoing nuclear impasse as a "realistic option" after the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended without results, they said.

"Early thoughts after the breakdown in Hanoi were that Washington won't pursue a phased approach to the North's denuclearization," ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Lee Soo-hyuck said after ending his visit to the U.S., according to pool reports.

"But we observed thoughts and heard a range of advisories from Washington think tanks and U.S. lawmakers that taking an incremental approach on the North Korean issue is a realistic option."

Lee was one of five South Korean lawmakers who flew to Washington for meetings with opinion leaders and senior U.S. lawmakers. They met Democrats on Capitol Hill and key members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"It's still premature to say the U.S. will agree to a step-by-step approach in resolving the nuclear conflict and soften its public position following the summit in Hanoi," said Jung Byung-kuk, a lawmaker with the minor right Bareunmirae Party (BMP). "Our observation is that reaching a resolution on the North's nuclear issue won't come shortly. We were told achieving the North's denuclearization would take two or three more years at least."

The lawmakers also met U.S. special representative on North Korea Stephen Biegun and were briefed on the latest updates. But they declined to elaborate.

Washington is seeking to maintain communication channels with the North to find a way forward. In Hanoi, Trump told North leader Kim Jong-un about Washington's preferred specific steps in dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear program. But Kim asked Trump to ease sanctions and "only presented" his plan to dismantle the major Yongbyon nuclear complex with no timeframe.

Scott Snyder, director of a program on Korea-U.S. policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, remained rather positive in terms of getting Seoul, Washington and Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. "One prerequisite to advance the nuclear diplomacy was "an agreement on the definition of complete denuclearization," he said.

"With an agreement on the definition of complete denuclearization, it will be possible to do much more with greater confidence what we are working toward the same goals," the North Korea expert told The Korea Times. "There remains a clear difference between those views and the North Korean view, which has not yet embraced an understanding of what is meant by complete denuclearization."

Before the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, U.S. officials had suggested they were open to a phased approach, whereby North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons in stages as the United States took some corresponding measures.

Still, critical differences remain on policy issues like whether and under what conditions to offer concessions to North Korea and how to share costs associated with the U.S.-South Korea alliance, said a congressional research service titled "South Korea: Background and U.S. Relations."

"After several years of close coordination, notably on North Korea, collaboration between the United States and South Korea has become more inconsistent and unpredictable under the administrations of Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in," said the report released on May 21 (KST). It added that United States-North Korea and South Korea-North Korea diplomacy have stalled since the Hanoi summit.