The Korea Times

Diplomacy and deterrence

By Tong KimIn a 24-page document on Interim National Security Strategic Guidance released March 3, President Joe Biden instructed his security team still developing a new strategy toward North Korea to employ “diplomacy as our tool of first resort.” The new guidance said the administration will “empower diplomats to work to reduce the threats posed by North Korea's growing nuclear and missile programs, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Republic of Korea and Japan.”Biden's guidance did not mention “the denuclearization of North Korea” as an overarching goal of his policy. Reduction of the threats from North Korea would be an initial objective by curbing and containing an ever-increasing North Korean arsenal, while working toward ultimate denuclearization.On the other hand, his plan for empowering diplomats confirms Biden's earlier statement that he would discard the failed top-down diplomacy practiced by his predecessor and return to the normal bottom-up approach, starting at a working-level.Washington is calling for the strengthening of allian

Mar 11, 2021By Tong Kim

Biden's options on N. Korea

By Tong KimNot much is known about how the Biden administration is doing in developing a new strategy to address the threats of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. It is widely known that in the course of formulating a new policy, Biden's security team will coordinate closely with U.S. allies and partners in the region.There has been no communication or engagement between Washington and Pyongyang since Biden took office. Last week, the State Department said that North Korea is “an urgent priority” for the United States and Washington remains committed to the denuclearization of the North. North Korea has been quiet, with no provocative activities. General Secretary Kim Jong-un said during the eighth party congress in January that his regime would respond to the U.S. in kind with “tough on tough” and “good for good”: He also vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent, calling the United States “the biggest enemy of his country.” However, he did not exclude dialogue with Washington. Maybe, Pyongyang is waiting for Washington to come u

Feb 22, 2021By Tong Kim

Biden's NK policy review

By Tong KimIn just three weeks since its inauguration, the Biden administration has revealed its direction of charting American foreign policy to “engage and lead” the world again, with an emphasis on diplomacy, democracy and human rights. It has repealed a number ― but not all ― of the policies that were pursued by its predecessor. There is some continuity in the thrust of U.S. policy on China and in its national defense posture. The 2018 national defense strategy will remain in effect, while it will be reviewed and updated. Biden's security team is reviewing a host of foreign policy issues, including North Korean nuclear threats, to come up with new strategies.The Biden team has extended the New START treaty with Russia for another five years. The U.S. has ended its support for a Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen. It has halted Trump's plan to redeploy U.S. troops out of Germany. It has joined international pressure on the military coup in Burma. It will also review the Afghanistan situation to decide whether to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from there by May.N

Feb 8, 2021By Tong Kim

Strategic engagement with N. Korea

By Tong KimThe Biden administration is making it clear that it will review its policy toward North Korea in consultation with allies including South Korea and Japan to develop a new strategy to deter Pyongyang's nuclear program, according to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki last Friday.There will be “a thorough review of the state of play in North Korea, ongoing pressure options and the potential for any future diplomacy,” Psaki said. However, the review should be expedited for completion within a few months, not the six months that George W. Bush's team took in 2001. Psaki's statement is consistent with testimony by Antony Blinken, Biden's secretary of state nominee, who said before a Senate confirmation hearing, Jan 19: “We have to review the entire approach and policy towards North Korea.” Blinken was answering the question of whether he would support a "phased agreement" that would offer sanctions relief in return for a freeze by Pyongyang of its weapons program.The Biden team's approach to Pyongyang may appear prudent, yet disappointing, given the presid

Jan 25, 2021By Tong Kim

N. Korea's intractable threats

By Tong KimIn a report to the Eighth Congress of the Workers Party last week, Chairman Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea has completed a reliable strategic nuclear arsenal that includes a tactical nuclear weapon, in addition to an intercontinental ballistic missile, but it will continue to advance the capability of its weapons by new technology, according to the state-run KCNA. Details on the North's plan to bolster its defense capabilities included research and development projects for a nuclear powered submarine, solid fuel engines, and “perfecting the guidance technology for a multi-warhead rocket at the final stage (multiple-reentry vehicles).” The report also said the North is getting ready to test and produce “hypersonic gliding flight warheads for new type ballistic rockets.”While Kim's report said the North's nuclear weapons were solely for defense in the case of “the hostile force's attempt to use its nuclear weapons against the DPRK,” its strategic doctrine covers both preemptive and retaliatory strikes. There is no guarantee for the

Jan 11, 2021By Tong Kim

Human rights and nuclear talks

By Tong Kim The human rights situation in North Korea has been an important component of U.S. policy toward the DPRK. However, the issue was never raised in conjunction with the North's nuclear and missile programs. The reason is simple. The human rights issue is separate from the enormous challenge of denuclearization, and raising it would complicate nuclear negotiations, creating obstacles to efforts towards progress.Yet, in separate talks from the nuclear issue, the United States has tried to engage the North on a number of sensitive issues of concern that were deemed as hurdles in the path to a normalized relationship with the DPRK and a durable peace agreement. These issues included abuses of human rights in the North, missile exports, terrorism sponsorship, drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking. North Korea has never admitted its involvement in any of these categories, except for missile deals.North Korea does not accept the universalism of international human rights as defined by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and subsequent treaties on h

Dec 28, 2020By Tong Kim

A way forward on N. Korea

By Tong KimLast week, we heard key North Korean figure Kim Yo-jong reacting to Seoul's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's comments on the North's handling of COVID-19, as well as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun reflecting on the failure of U.S.-North negotiations on denuclearization.On Dec. 9, Kim called Kang's remarks “reckless,” accusing her of being “too eager to further chill the frozen relations between North and South Korea” and threatening, “We will never forget her words and she might have to pay dearly for it.”Kim's statement signals another setback for inter-Korean relations. What Kang said was neither baseless nor malicious, but it was gratuitously sarcastic, if not insensitive, at a time when President Moon Jae-in was pushing hard for the resumption of dialogue with the North.On Nov. 5, Kang told a forum in Bahrain that the pandemic had “made North Korea more North Korea ― that is, more closed, very top-down decision-making process where there is very little debate on their measures in dealing with COVID-19.” Sh

Dec 14, 2020By Tong Kim

Pyongyang's reticence on Biden

By Tong KimFor weeks, North Korea has been silent on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Since Joe Biden was recognized as the U.S. president-elect, many world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, have called Biden to congratulate him on his victory. Russian President Vladimir Putin is waiting for a final certification of electoral votes for Biden, while Trump still refuses to concede defeat, falsely claiming massive election fraud. Xi waited until after the Trump administration's General Services Administration granted transition work to proceed. Kim Jong-un is waiting for more signals to figure out what Biden wants to do with his country. However, Kim is unlikely to reach out to Biden personally. Pyongyang is scrutinizing every report and commentary on Biden and his transition team published in the U.S. The analysis reads between lines of what Biden says and decodes implications of relevance to North Korea. Biden's picks of Antony Blinken as secretary of state and Jake Sullivan as national security adviser are mixed sign

Nov 30, 2020By Tong Kim

Building on broken agreements with N. Korea

By Tong KimWhile President Donald Trump refuses to concede, President-elect Joe Biden's transition team is moving forward to prepare the next president to be ready to lead an America already in crisis from day one in office on Jan 20. due to the pandemic and economic woes.On foreign policy, the Biden administration is expected to rejoin the Paris climate accord, reenter the Iranian nuclear deal, extend the only remaining nuclear arms control deal with Russia for five more years, rejoin the World Health Organization, and end Trump's “America First” to reassure U.S. allies in Europe and the Pacific.At the same time, there are many views of what the next administration's policy would be like for North Korea. A change of power in Washington often led to discontinuity in policy, with an incoming administration repudiating its predecessor's policy. Examples include George W. Bush's “anything but Clinton's” policy and Trump's tearing down of Obama's policy. This column shares the view that Biden is unlikely to return to Obama's failed policy of “strategic pati

Nov 16, 2020By Tong Kim

US election and North Korea

By Tong KimIt may take days or weeks to find out who has won the Nov. 3 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. With the expected delay in the vote count and pre-election polls being so close ― within the margins of error in some of the key swing states ― there are legitimate concerns that election results may end up in courts and in violence. However, any election disputes or any other aftermath should be settled in time according to the U.S. Constitution to ensure the peaceful transfer of power to a new president or the public swearing-in of Trump for a second term on Jan. 21. Much has been discussed about how U.S. foreign policy may change under a second Trump administration or a Biden administration, and more specifically, how it will affect the Korean peninsula. Trump claims that he prevented war with North Korea by his bold summit diplomacy. He has said he would make a quick deal in his second term to settle the North Korean issue finally. Biden will meet with Kim Jong-un if North Korea agrees to denuclearize. For the format of negotiation, Biden would go back

Nov 2, 2020By Tong Kim

Tong Kim