Trump’s high-stakes move: talks with North Korea over the ₩8 trillion hack; North Korea expert says ‘zero chance’

[Financial News] The largest-ever Binance crypto hack, worth around 8 trillion won, was found to have been carried out by North Korea, emerging as the biggest factor in U.S.-North Korea talks this month.
According to diplomatic sources on the 1st, President Donald Trump left the door open to U.S.-North Korea talks even after the FBI said North Korea was behind the Binance crypto hack. However, the chances of the talks actually taking place are considered slim.
President Trump told reporters he met at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on the 31st of last month (local time), “If that’s the case, we’ll talk to North Korea about this issue,” referring to the fact that North Korea had been identified as the force behind the Binance hack. This means he remains willing to talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is suspected of ordering the hack.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said President Trump was prepared to meet with Chairman Kim. Rubio made the remarks at a press conference held on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
However, Rubio said he was not considering diplomatic concessions to facilitate talks with Chairman Kim. He said, “The president does not view dialogue or a meeting as a concession.”
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Rubio met with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting and reaffirmed the goal of North Korea’s complete denuclearization. They also stressed the full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on sanctions against North Korea. This includes a ban on funding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The three countries also commended the work of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which has exposed North Korea’s sanctions violations and evasion.
Domestic experts on North Korea assess that there is almost no chance of U.S.-North Korea talks taking place under current conditions. Unless the United States proactively offers major concessions that North Korea cannot reject, North Korea’s nuclear, conventional and asymmetric weapons, as well as its cyber hacking attempts, are expected to become even more sophisticated. There are also concerns that North Korea will increasingly attempt global financial hacks to undermine financial sanctions against it.
Professor Eul-Chul Lim of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University said, “Unless the Trump administration proactively makes some kind of concession, the possibility of contact or a meeting between the U.S. and North Korean leaders is close to zero.” 

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter