WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The next U.S. president will face tough policy choices on North Korea especially in case South Korea's new administration adopts an engagement strategy on the communist neighbor, a major think tank here said Sunday.
Whether President Barack Obama succeeds in his re-election bid or his Republican rival Gov. Mitt Romney wins the race in early November, he "must prepare for the likelihood that the newly elected South Korean government will seek a policy ofgreater engagement with North Korea, and decide whether he would support this policy," the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) said in a far-reaching report on pending diplomatic and defense issues.
Titled, "Nation Security Guides to the 2012 Presidential Election," the report gave in-depth foreign policy advice on ways to deal with Iran, Syria, China and others.
Regarding North Korea, it noted, South Korea's presidential candidates have indicated that they will return to at least some form of engagement that would avert the Lee Myung-bak government's hard-line approach. Lee is to finish his five-year term in February next year. His successor will be decided in the December presidential polls.
The next U.S. president will also "need to determine whether any diplomatic options exist for making progress on bilateral disagreements," added the report.
He would have to response to any use of force by North Korea, which is unpredictable, in a "rapid and effective but measured way" in coordination with regional U.S. allies, it said.
Managing relations with China would be one of the other key challenges, it said.
"The two countries diverge on such matters as China's support for North Korea and Iran, its muscular approach to regional territorial disputes, and its military buildup as well as on issues ofhuman rights, democracy and freedom of information," it pointed out.
Created in 2007, the liberal-oriented CNAS is known as one of the most influential think tanks in Washington these days as the Obama administration has recruited many researchers at the institution for high-ranking posts. Some even call it Obama's home think tank.