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Stephen Hadley

During a visit to South Korea, Stephen Hadley, Executive Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council, emphasized that a diplomatic solution should be the priority in the North Korean nuclear crisis. Hadley served as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs under former US President George W. Bush.

Hadley made the remark in response to a question about the South Korea-US alliance and the future of American policy toward North Korea while meeting South Korean reporters in a hotel in Seoul on the morning on Oct. 29. While Hadley remarked that the possibility of resorting to a “military option” to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue was “a matter for the Trump and Moon administrations to discuss,” he said that “finding a diplomatic solution is the priority. We should be resolving this through diplomatic and economic pressure and sanctions and through China. In the end, the military option is not what we want.”

In response to a reporter who asked whether the US could really pressure China into bringing about North Korea’s denuclearization, Hadley said, “China knows that this is an important issue, too. South Korea and the US must help China understand that the current situation is unsustainable. Since [the current situation] creates a number of risks for China, too, I don’t think that China would be pleased by North Korea acquiring a nuclear arsenal. South Korea, the US and Japan would all respond with measures to deter and defend against North Korea. That’s something that China wouldn’t like very much, since it would trigger further US engagement in East Asian security.” The possibility that North Korea’s nuclear armament will cause the US to become more involved in the Korean Peninsula and East Asia should be used as leverage to persuade China, Hadley said.

“I hope that China will use its influence by exerting diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to change its policy. [North Korea’s denuclearization] would be good not only for China and for South Korea, the US and Japan, but also for North Korea itself because North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles makes North Korea less secure and less safe. I admit, of course, that Kim Jong-un doesn’t think so. But I think he’s wrong,” Hadley added.

During the meeting, Hadley also offered an interpretation of the Trump administration’s hardline stance on North Korea. He said that the Trump’s policy toward the North is largely the same as that of previous US administrations. “The Trump administration and the Clinton administration are the same in terms of how they prioritized solving the North Korean issue. President Trump has done the right thing by sending a clear message that North Korea’s nuclear weapon program is an important issue, that China should not ignore the North Korean issue and needs to work with us to resolve it, and that we need to pressure the North to achieve denuclearization,” he said.

Trump’s tweets contain a “mixed message about negotiations and pressure,” according to Hadley. “They might look like opposite directions, but they’re a single strategy. Instead of looking at the message of the tweets in isolation, you have to look at what the American government is actually doing,” he said. Hadley’s point is that rather than focusing on the fact that the US government seems to be threatening war in its hardline message to North Korea, we should take note of the actions it is actually taking.

“The message that the US government is sending may look confusing to ordinary people or to the international community, but instead of reading too much into it, I think we should regard this as ‘setting the table’ for negotiations to create a strategy for a breakthrough on the North Korean nuclear issue,” he said.

When asked why North Korea has not committed any additional provocation for over a month, Hadley said “it’s too early to tell. It might be the results of sanctions [of the international community, including the UN Security Council resolution], or it might just be a delay.” At the present moment, these comments suggest, it’s impossible to know exactly what kind of message North Korea is sending by not committing provocations.

The push to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons that is being made by conservative politicians in South Korea is “a matter worth discussing by the two countries,” Hadley said. “The US removed tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1992 in order to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Since North Korea has nuclear weapons now, surely the South Korea-US leaders can discuss this again.”

Hadley also described historical disputes between South Korea and Japan as “elements that obstruct efforts to move into the future” and said that he hopes they will be avoided. ”I completely understand the gravity of the historical issues between South Korea and Japan. But in contrast with the past, the North Korean issue poses a threat not only to South Korea but also to Japan. It can only be resolved through cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan, and Russia and China have to be on board as well. So in this situation, South Korea must not refuse to cooperate because of its historical issues with Japan. That would be exactly what North Korea wants.”

Hadley succeeded Condoleezza Rice as the White House assistant for national security affairs during the second term of former president George W. Bush. The Atlantic Council, a non-profit think tank in the US that deals with major international issues, named South Korean President Moon Jae-in a winner of its Global Citizen Awards when he visited the US for the UN General Assembly on Sept. 19. Hadley met South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Oct. 27 during his visit to South Korea, which occurred shortly before Trump is scheduled to visit the country.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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