Sanctions alone cannot solve North Korea's denuclearization issue: Seoul's nuclear envoy

이도훈 "제재로만 북핵 해결 못해…한번에 핵포기는 환상" Since the collapsed Hanoi summit,... U.S. officials continued to up the pressure on the North, saying sanctions on the regime need to be toughened. But Seoul's top nuclear envoy believes such measures alone will not work. Lee Ji-won has our top story. Though sanctions can have some effect,... Seoul's nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon says sanctions by themselves cannot fundamentally resolve the North Korea nuclear issue. "North Korea has persistently developed nuclear program through decades of sanctions and pressure. To believe that stronger sanctions and more pressure alone would make North Korea suddenly give up its entire nuclear program is an illusion." During his speech at an expert discussion on the Moon administration's Korea Peace Initiative on Thursday, Lee said efforts to resume dialogue need to be continued,... despite skepticism, limited time and mutual distrust. Lee also said, though the top-down approach between Pyeongyang and Washington is one of the key factors for success,... there needs to be more working-level discussions. He said, one reason for the collapse of the Hanoi summit is that the officials could not fully fine tune the core issue of denuclearization and its corresponding measures before taking it to their leaders,... so Kim and Trump didn't have enough time to close the gap on the specifics. And once the much anticipated talks resume, Lee said, the two sides must obtain early results, large or small. This is also in line with what the presidential advisor Moon Chung-in said at the discussion -- that a "priming" measure is needed to help build more trust between the two sides. "I hope Chairman Kim would allow international inspection of Punggye-ri nuclear test site that will be one very positive first move. That kind of activity will give very positive signals to Washington D.C., then I would argue that President Trump can reciprocate to North Korea's first move." Moon said a partial lift in sanctions such as giving the greenlight to inter-Korean projects like the reopening of the Gaesong Industrial Complex could be a possible reciprocal measure. "But for that to happen, the special advisor said President Moon Jae-in will have to put in a lot of effort to convince the North to agree with a comprehensive agreement and to persuade the U.S. to accept a step-by-step implementation. Lee Ji-won Arirang News." Arirang News Facebook:   / arirangtvnews