Trump, Kim Jong-un could reach 'Small Deal': Fmr. U.S. intelligence official

Meanwhile speculation is mounting about prospects of fresh engagement between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un .

And for more on such prospects our Oh Soo-young sat down with a former U.S. envoy to the six-party nuclear talks.

Do take a listen.

Seoul and Washington could aim for small but meaningful steps towards denuclearizing North Korea, in a possible small deal under the new Trump Administration.

Former U.S. intelligence official Joseph Detrani told Arirang News he sees potential for a revival of top-level talks between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after their Hanoi Summit in 2019 broke down, which showed that Kim was not ready for a "big deal" to close down all his nuclear facilities.

Ambassador Detrani was Washington's special envoy to the Six Party Talks that aimed to negotiate with North Korea two decades ago.

"In regards to what sort of a process could be used to better engage with North Korea? I think we learned from Hanoi that the Libya Model where we expect North Korea to put everything on the table is unrealistic. It's not going to happen. I think we knew this from the 6 Party Talks with North Korea going back to 2005 with the joint statement -it's actions for actions. As North Korea gets certain benefits, they will start to dismantle their nuclear weapons programs."

Despite Kim Jong-un's reported disappointment and anger over the failed talks, Detrani said the potential lifting of economic sanctions for smaller concessions could draw him back to negotiations.

"This hasn't been put on the table before but ideally stop the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. These are all these are all moves in the right direction. Now, is North Korea going to give up their arsenal of nuclear weapons? No, and Kim Jung-un has made that very clear, but our goal should be and, I think, will be the complete verifiable dismantlement of all nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons facilities and that should continue to be our goal."

Detrani stressed the importance of reaching even small deals to freeze North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile development, especially as the regime last year forged a comprehensive partnership with Russia, which includes mutual defence in times of war, and experts fear a potential transfer of key missile and nuclear technologies.

"The assessment at least in the United States is reportedly that they can miniaturise their nuclear warheads and they can make them to these short range, intermediate range long range ballistic missiles what they could be getting from Russia. There's more work on their hypersonics because the hypersonic they're working on is capable of defeating, in theory, missile defense systems which is very important but also merging them where they have multiple re-entry of vehicles where there are multiple re-entry, if you will, of nuclear warheads where you can have one missile, an ICBM like the Hwasong carrying five to 6 nuclear warheads that could be independently maneuvered to strike different targets."

While the South Korean president's suspension from office has hindered top-level diplomacy with Washington, Detrani says the bilateral alliance will likely remain "robust" due to such challenges, among other security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly as Washington continues to counter China's growing influence.

The Ambassador added it is highly unlikely the U.S. would formally recognize North Korea as a nuclear state, as that could potentially trigger distrust among U.S. allies, and an arms race in the region.

Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.