By Bernard Rowan
I'm happy Joseph Biden has begun as the new President of the United States. I think Koreans are too, at least those South of Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).. Among the many challenges of foreign policy facing the United States, relations with North Korea will remain a flash point over the next four years.
I'm writing this column to share an opinion on how to go about them. I'm thinking of the hundreds of millions of people on whose lives Korean-American relations depend. Korean-American relations impact the region and the world with increasing value and significance. This matters for security relations, trade and social progress. Peace on the Korean peninsula is a major goal of American and Korean national policies.
North Korea has played the United States and the world like a fiddle for the last 40 years or so. The Trump approach, in a way like those of Roh Moo-hyun and others before them, failed spectacularly. The North has no thought to change its juche culture, and nuclear weapons provide perhaps the largest deterrent to internal change, and to external threats.
The era of personal diplomacy reached its peak with Reagan and Gorbachev, and all should remember the latter wanted to change his country. Kim Jong-un doesn't and won't change North Korea. No amount of charm or confident rhetoric will move the North's regime. Demonizing the North or Kim won't move the North either. This bitter pill is medicine for clear thinking.
What should happen given this reality? A two-track approach of honest dealing with China and pressure to drive the North to open and transparent dealing with international partners, along with solid deterrence. That hasn't happened.
Somehow the United States gives China a pass on the North. Xi Jinping and company treat the North as they want to do, and ignore the international community's clear call for change. With Xinjiang, intellectual property, the South China Sea, and the overvalued yen, opposing China's pandering to her little brother in Pyongyang should form a pillar of America's posture. China's sponsorship of North Korea is the single biggest reason there's no real change by Kim.
Second, many nations have drifted into the Chinese orbit because of Trump's neglect. The Chinese have also tried to woo South Korea. The United States must shore up security and economic relations with all Asian countries. Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam only head the list.
The United States must be an active participant and partner in regional organizations, regional economic development, and in the environmental and legal efforts around free and open and clean oceans and seas. Asian-American partnerships should premise trade development, security development, and preserving national autonomy and freedom.
President Biden's administration signals an end to the racism and prejudice that fermented during the Trump era. America also must take her relations with South Korea and other Asian partners to a new level. No longer is the United States "the sole superpower" and big brother.
Genuine and equal partnerships will guide Asian nations' trade with the United States, security and foreign policy strategies with the United States, and deepening partnerships. Perhaps the best footing the United States can show North Korea is a portfolio of active and vibrant friendships in economy, society, and security with the nations of Asia.
And in this series of partnerships, the Republic of Korea and United States partnership should shine the brightest. The United States still keeps a host of military stations and sites all over the South Korean peninsula. Trump made little by a deeper friendship in demanding their continuation with greater burden-sharing by the South.
Overtime, just as with the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and other advanced nations, control of the Southern defense as a part of allied relations must stand in the South's hands. The Korean American alliance founds the promise of peace in the Asian region and beyond. President Biden's administration and all friends of Korea must remember this fact.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.01
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I'm writing this column to share an opinion on how to go about them. I'm thinking of the hundreds of millions of people on whose lives Korean-American relations depend. Korean-American relations impact the region and the world with increasing value and significance. This matters for security relations, trade and social progress. Peace on the Korean peninsula is a major goal of American and Korean national policies.
North Korea has played the United States and the world like a fiddle for the last 40 years or so. The Trump approach, in a way like those of Roh Moo-hyun and others before them, failed spectacularly. The North has no thought to change its juche culture, and nuclear weapons provide perhaps the largest deterrent to internal change, and to external threats.
The era of personal diplomacy reached its peak with Reagan and Gorbachev, and all should remember the latter wanted to change his country. Kim Jong-un doesn't and won't change North Korea. No amount of charm or confident rhetoric will move the North's regime. Demonizing the North or Kim won't move the North either. This bitter pill is medicine for clear thinking.
What should happen given this reality? A two-track approach of honest dealing with China and pressure to drive the North to open and transparent dealing with international partners, along with solid deterrence. That hasn't happened.
Somehow the United States gives China a pass on the North. Xi Jinping and company treat the North as they want to do, and ignore the international community's clear call for change. With Xinjiang, intellectual property, the South China Sea, and the overvalued yen, opposing China's pandering to her little brother in Pyongyang should form a pillar of America's posture. China's sponsorship of North Korea is the single biggest reason there's no real change by Kim.
Second, many nations have drifted into the Chinese orbit because of Trump's neglect. The Chinese have also tried to woo South Korea. The United States must shore up security and economic relations with all Asian countries. Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam only head the list.
The United States must be an active participant and partner in regional organizations, regional economic development, and in the environmental and legal efforts around free and open and clean oceans and seas. Asian-American partnerships should premise trade development, security development, and preserving national autonomy and freedom.
President Biden's administration signals an end to the racism and prejudice that fermented during the Trump era. America also must take her relations with South Korea and other Asian partners to a new level. No longer is the United States "the sole superpower" and big brother.
Genuine and equal partnerships will guide Asian nations' trade with the United States, security and foreign policy strategies with the United States, and deepening partnerships. Perhaps the best footing the United States can show North Korea is a portfolio of active and vibrant friendships in economy, society, and security with the nations of Asia.
And in this series of partnerships, the Republic of Korea and United States partnership should shine the brightest. The United States still keeps a host of military stations and sites all over the South Korean peninsula. Trump made little by a deeper friendship in demanding their continuation with greater burden-sharing by the South.
Overtime, just as with the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and other advanced nations, control of the Southern defense as a part of allied relations must stand in the South's hands. The Korean American alliance founds the promise of peace in the Asian region and beyond. President Biden's administration and all friends of Korea must remember this fact.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.01
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