US experts send Trump letter urging negotiations with North Korea

Posted on : 2017-06-30 19:42 KST Modified on : 2017-06-30 19:42 KST
Dialogue is “the only realistic option to reduce dangers resulting from the current high state of tensions,” experts say
From left to right
From left to right

Some of the US’s leading veteran North Korea experts sent a letter to US President Donald Trump on June 28 urging him to negotiate with North Korea. The letter came was sent two days ahead of Trump’s summit in Washington with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The letter was signed by six veteran officials from both sides of the aisle, including William Perry, former Secretary of Defense under the Bill Clinton administration; George Shultz, who was Secretary of State under the Ronald Reagan administration; former Republican Senator Richard Lugar; top US nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker; Robert Gallucci, who was the US’s senior representative during its 1994 negotiations with North Korea in Geneva; and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

A letter from US experts urging the Donald Trump administration to negotiate with North Korea
A letter from US experts urging the Donald Trump administration to negotiate with North Korea

“As experts with decades of military, political, and technical involvement with North Korean issues, we strongly urge your administration to begin discussions with North Korea in the near future,” the letter to Trump began.

“In our view, this is the only realistic option to reduce dangers resulting from the current high state of tensions and prevent North Korea’s ongoing development and potential use of nuclear weapons,” it continued.

Emphasizing that “talking is not a reward or a concession to Pyongyang,” the experts said negotiation was “a necessary step to establishing communication [with Pyongyang] to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.”

“This effort should begin with informal bilateral talks - with no preconditions - to explore options for more formal negotiations,” they said.

“To show good faith and jump-start talks, the United States could send a high-level presidential envoy to North Korea,” they suggested.

“There is no guarantee diplomacy will work. But there are no good military options, and a North Korean response to a US attack could devastate South Korea and Japan,” the letter warned.

Stressing that “sanctions alone will not solve the problem,” the experts finished the letter with the message, “Time is not on our side. We urge you to put diplomacy at the top of the list of options on the table.”

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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