US Democratic Congressman Ted Liu said there is a possibility to wait for the next South Korean government as to the timing of US diplomacy with North Korea. According to the policy of the next South Korean government, which will be launched in the middle of next year, the US’s aggressiveness toward future measures against North Korea may change. Reporter Lee Jo-eun reports.
Democratic Congressman Ted Liu predicts that the Biden administration may not actively promote diplomacy with North Korea within the term of South Korea’s Moon Jae-in administration.
[녹취:리우 의원] “I honestly think the US might just wait to see what the next administration is going to be like in South Korea… ”
Regarding the timing of the Biden administration’s promotion of diplomacy with North Korea at a video seminar hosted by the Quincy Institute, a private organization in Washington, on the 22nd, Congressman Liu said, “The United States may wait for a moment to see what the next administration will look like in Korea. It is because we need cooperation.”
According to the thoughts of the next South Korean government, which will be launched in the middle of next year, how aggressively the United States will be in taking low-level actions in relation to North Korea could affect future US actions.
Rep. Liu, a former U.S. Air Force member of the House Foreign Relations Committee’s Asia-Pacific subcommittee, said a war with nuclear weapons would have disastrous consequences.
He also said that the reason why China and Russia, which possess nuclear weapons, do not use nuclear weapons, is because of the strong deterrent power of the United States, and that North Korea should also implement a strong nuclear deterrence policy.
Regarding the case of denuclearization in South Africa, Congressman Liu suggested that the United States should consider ways to ensure North Korea’s safety.
[녹취:리우 의원] “If that’s not something that’s achievable really in the near or medium term… ”
Rep. Liu said, “If the denuclearization of North Korea cannot be achieved in the short-term, we need to look at ways to stabilize the situation so that the North Korean leader feels less of the need to do bad things, such as the use of nuclear weapons.”
He added that South Africa gave up its nuclear weapons because it reached the conclusion that it was safe enough that it did not need nuclear weapons, and emphasized that in order to denuclearize North Korea in the long run, North Korea must feel safe without at least a large number of nuclear weapons.
In the end, the United States must look at ways to provide various security guarantees to North Korea in order to achieve its long-term goal of denuclearization.
Rep. Liu also stressed that “disarmament negotiations” with North Korea should be based on verification, not trust, and that North Korea’s actions should be verified.
[녹취:리우 의원] “Nothing we do should be based on trust with North Korea… ”
“We can still reach agreement” through disarmament negotiations, Liu said. “Based on the verification of actions, we can cooperate with South Korea to achieve peace and take steps to move the two sides forward.” .
He added that he fully supports low-level measures to increase mutual trust with North Korea in this context.
Moon Jae-in, Chairman of the Sejong Institute, Moon Jae-in, who served as a special advisor to South Korean President’s Unification Diplomacy and Security, stressed that disarmament negotiations with North Korea do not mean recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power.
[녹취:문 전 특보] “That means halting North Korean activities… ”
“The disarmament negotiations mean to halt North Korea’s (nuclear, missile) activities,” said Moon Jeon’s special report, and said that it could start by providing compensation to North Korea in exchange for freezing, such as stopping uranium enrichment activities at the Yongbyon nuclear facility. .
He then rolled back North Korea’s (nuclear and missile programs) and offered compensation for it, and said that the third step was the dismantling (of North Korean nuclear and missile programs).
Jeon Moon’s special report suggested that the Biden administration could use Singapore’s first US-North Korea joint statement in 2018 as a good starting point.
The Biden administration also added that the details of the North Korean proposal that the US rejected during the second summit in Hanoi should also be reviewed.
Moon’s special report emphasized a multilateral approach to solving the North Korean nuclear program problem, and suggested a method of restoring the past six-party talks to a summit meeting rather than a vice minister, or holding a’Northeast Asia Security Summit’.
He said this could be the most effective way to resolve disagreements between Korea and Japan as well as between the US and China, and that North Korea would not oppose such summit talks.
Meanwhile, at the seminar that day, Senior Researcher Jessica Lee of Quincy Institute and Director of East Asia Program Michael Swain introduced the “strategy toward North Korea based on a more realistic and short-term goal rooted in peace and denuclearization” contained in the East Asian Policy Proposal Report published last month. I repeatedly urged the Biden administration.
Senior researcher Lee says the United States should start thinking about East Asian policies that will eventually allow allies like South Korea to take control of their own problems.
[녹취:리 선임연구원] “We recommend that the United States begin..”
“The US policy in East Asia should adopt a defensive military balance, increase regional involvement in many areas, and take a more feasible and focused approach to human rights issues.”
This is VOA News Lee Jo-eun.