Top US envoy for North Korea to retire after President Trump rejects talks without conditions

The US special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after US President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.

South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led the US outreach to North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy, since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

His departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

Yun's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.

Yun told US media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

"It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out."

Yun noted that North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests," CBS said. Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

Analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.

"This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy."

Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the US government at a critical moment."

CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences "per se," but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis.

Yun nevertheless appeared in step with recent administration positions when speaking to CBS.

"We need to get it right," he was quoted as saying. "We need to make sure if there are talks it will lead to denuclearization. We need a whole of government approach."

Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The US State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision."

NO CHANGE IN POLICY

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top US national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

"If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more."

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks.

Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected.

Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks."

"I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea, and Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work - an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

In another reference to the risk of war, Trump added on Monday: "We're talking about tremendous potential loss of lives, numbers that nobody's even contemplated, never thought of."

In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the UN Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations."

A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in a dangerous standoff.

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances.

"He's such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations between Washington and Pyongyang.

Yun's departure comes as Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. The administration's failure to fill this and other key foreign policy positions has brought criticism in Congress and among former US officials and experts.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had been aware Yun planned to step down and that it had highly appreciated his work.