Joe Biden was elected the 46th president of the
United States on November, 3, 2020, and the new Biden administration was subsequently
launched on January 20, 2021. The Biden administration, which is expected to
implement domestic and foreign policies that would be substantially different
from the former Trump administration, is also expected to take a policy significantly
distinct in relation to the Korean Peninsula issues.
In doing so, we look forward to establishing a more
proactive Korean Peninsula peace policy from the Biden administration, both taking
over the achievements and overcoming limitations of Trump’s “maximum pressure
and engagement” policy and Obama’s “strategic patience” policy.
As a candidate, President Biden said, “With North Korea, I
will empower our negotiators and jump-start a sustained, coordinated campaign
with our allies and others, including China, to advance our shared objective of
a denuclearized North Korea.”
In order to achieve the denuclearization and establish a
peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, the most urgent task for stability and
prosperity in Northeast Asia and for world peace, it is necessary for the Biden
administration to closely cooperate with the South Korean government, a partner
of the US-ROK alliance and the most concerned party to the Korean Peninsula
issues.
It is also imperative that in order to achieve the denuclearization
and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, two most important diplomatic
goals in the region, the two principles should always be kept: a diplomatic way
through negotiations with Pyongyang, and a step-by-step, reciprocal solution based
on action for action. In addition, the “denuclearization first” policy or CVID
policy only based on sanctions and pressure, which the former administrations
have tried in vain, should not be repeated.
The Biden administration has appointed key positions to deal
with North Korea. Some of them argue that the denuclearization of North Korea
is impossible or that the North Korean government is not a reliable negotiating
partner, neither of which is far from the truth. If the nuclear negotiation
process between the US and North Korea since the Clinton administration is
closely examined, we can see that North Korea has been seriously engaged in
negotiations with the US. In dealing with North Korea, President Biden with
expertise in the field of diplomacy should keep this in mind.
In order to negotiate with North Korea, furthermore, it
seems desirable to attempt a combined approach from above and from below as
necessary. While the Trump administration's top-down approach had a lot of
limitations, the bottom-up approach expected from the Biden administration may
also have limitations in the initiatives and timing of resolving the North
Korean nuclear issue. The two approaches are not necessarily mutually
exclusive.
At the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea held
in January this year, North Korea insisted that in order to establish new
US-North Korea relations, the US withdraw its hostile policy against North
Korea, and said that it would face the US with the tit-for-tat strategy. In
fact, North Korea's argument is not new and still expresses a willingness to
talk with the United States.
North Korea's nuclear weapons were developed not to
preemptively attack the US, but as a deterrent to alleviate the security anxiety
of the North Korean regime after the end of the Cold War. With the end of the
Cold War, the Soviet Union collapsed, and China established diplomatic
relations with South Korea. On the other hand, the United States became the
world's only superpower, and the gap in economic and military power between
South Korea and North Korea began to widen enormously.
Time is not on our side. Even at this moment, North Korea's
nuclear capabilities are increasing and becoming the most unstable factor in
peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. The Biden
administration should no longer waste time in the wishful thinking of the
collapse of the North Korean regime in the foreseeable future. Instead, it should
take as a starting point the principles and spirit of the Singapore Joint
Statement agreed by President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un in 2018, where the
two countries agreed on the establishment of new US-North Korea relations, a
peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, and the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula. The Biden administration should keep in mind that these three tasks
are closely intwined and that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and
the establishment of a peace regime are two sides of the coin.
To facilitate peace on the Korean Peninsula, the Biden
administration, in close consultation with the South Korean government, should suspend
the US-ROK annual joint military exercises as a concrete step to create a
peaceful atmosphere and build mutual trust on the Korean Peninsula, return
wartime operational command to the government of the Republic of Korea, declare
an end to the Korean War, and hold a summit meeting between the U.S. and North
Korea as soon as possible.
President Biden will probably be very busy even now overcoming
the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with urgent domestic and foreign problems.
However, the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula is also an
urgent task that cannot be postponed any longer. We hope that President Biden
will show a new leadership for peace on the Korean Peninsula to the world.
P.S. This article was published in The Road to Unification by the Orange County San Diego Chapter of the National Unification Advisory Council of the Republic of Korea.
