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A video conference jointly hosted by the Institute for National Security Strategy and the Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation on Dec. 2. (Lee Je-hun)

Former senior South Korean and US officials experienced in negotiations with North Korea suggest that the incoming Joe Biden administration will need to guarantee the security of North Korea’s regime and normalize relations with Pyongyang in order to resolve the denuclearization issue.

Former South Korean Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, former US State Department North Korea policy advisor William Perry, and former State Department Special Envoy Robert Gallucci shared this position in a video conference jointly held between Seoul and Washington by the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) and the Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) on Dec. 2.

Positions on the prospect of North Korea’s complete denuclearization were generally pessimistic on the US side, while the South Korean side indicated that it would be “difficult but achievable.” Gallucci, a key figure behind the 1994 US-North Korea Agreed Framework in Geneva, commented that 90% of Washington does not believe North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons. Perry added that getting North Korea to give up its nuclear program was close to a “mission impossible,” suggesting that “normalizing” North Korea as a state represented a more practical policy aim than complete denuclearization.

In contrast, Lim said he believed the North Korean nuclear issue was “solvable.” Special Presidential Advisor for Unification, Foreign Affairs and National Security Moon Chung-in, who served as moderator, also said that “diplomatic negotiations, not a military response, represent our only option.”

“We need to achieve optimistic outcomes out of pessimistic prospects through policy coordination between South Korea and the US,” he urged.

Even the figures representing the US side did not rule out the possibility of a change in attitude from Pyongyang. Gallucci shared his own experience with being surprised at how the North would back off from its previous adamant refusal to do something when a give-and-take situation arose.

Agreeing that North Korea regards nuclear weapons as a means of deterring a potential military strike by the US, the South Korean and US veteran officials advised that the Biden administration should work under this assumption as it goes about trying to find a solution. Perry argued that North Korea wants economic development but will not exchange its nuclear weapons for it, advising that any negotiator would have to be able to offer some means of guaranteeing its security.

Lim called the North Korean nuclear issue a “product of the hostile relationship between North Korea and the US.”

“If we hope to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, we also need to think about whether the US is really willing to normalize relations and guarantee peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he stressed, adding that it was “not realistic to focus on North Korea’s position alone.”

He went on to say, “I think the issue can be resolved if the Biden administration adopts an upgraded version of the [Bill] Clinton-Perry give-and-take approach, for example through a step-by-step, simultaneous approach that involves improving hostile relations and guaranteeing an environment where nuclear weapons are not necessary in exchange for denuclearization.” Former Vice Minister of Unification Chun Hae-sung called for “preemptive engagement with North Korea based on an appropriate division of roles and coordination between South Korea and the US.”

Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel, who was closely involved in an agreement reached between Pyongyang and Washington during the Barack Obama administration on Feb. 29, 2012, urged the Biden administration to adopt a combination of clearly agreed-upon negotiation priorities, coordination with South Korea, and support from China. Joseph DeTrani, a State Department special envoy to the Six-Party Talks during the George W. Bush administration, advised the US to avoid playing games that use North Korea as leverage in its relations with China.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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