U.S. willing to take 'interim steps' toward North's denuclearization, says White House official

Diplomacy

Published: 04 Mar. 2024, 19:15 Updated: 04 Mar. 2024, 23:02

U.S. willing to take 'interim steps' toward North's denuclearization, says White House official

Former South Korean National Security Advisor Kim Sung-han, CSIS President John Hamre, former Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver, and Korea Peace Foundation Director Park Myung-lim take part in the first session of the JoongAng-CSIS Forum at the Shilla Hotel in Jung District, central Seoul, on Monday. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

The United States is willing to take “interim steps” toward the eventual denuclearization of North Korea but plans to continue strengthening trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan as military ties deepen between the North and Russia, a White House official said at the JoongAng–CSIS Forum in Seoul on Monday.

The comments by Mira Rapp-Hooper, the senior director for East Asia and Oceania on the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), underscored the Biden administration’s continuing commitment to hold talks with Pyongyang “without preconditions” to achieve the “eventual” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but also marked the first time a U.S. official spoke about measures targeting “threat reduction” with regards to the North.

The forum, co-hosted by the JoongAng Ilbo and the Council on Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), took place at the Shilla Hotel in Jung District, central Seoul, and revolved around the theme “The Polycrisis in 2024.”

Discussions dealt with not only the North Korean threat to regional security, but also growing military-industrial cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow and the impact the U.S. presidential election in November may have on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

The conference was opened by JoongAng Holdings Chairman Hong Seok-hyun and CSIS President John Hamre, with congratulatory remarks by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Defense Minister Shin Won-sik.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the White House National Security Council, speaks during a featured conversation with CSIS Senior Vice President Victor Cha during the JoongAng-CSIS Forum on Monday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

In his opening remarks, Hong called the growing cooperation between the North, China and Russia a “dangerous gamble” by the three countries and warned that a “nuclear-armed Kim Jong-un will mercilessly exploit a United States preoccupied with two wars on two different fronts” in reference to Ukraine and Israel.

During the opening dialogue with Victor Cha, CSIS Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea, Rapp-Hooper acknowledged that “burgeoning” military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow are a source of concern for Washington.

“We assess that Pyongyang is seeking direct military assistance, including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment and materials and other advanced technology,” Rapp-Hooper said, adding that Russia’s use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine not only “provides valuable technical and military insights” to the North, but also “provides solvency to the regime” with “millions upon millions of dollars” in revenue, while also making North Korea “an increasingly attractive source for munitions, arms and missiles to other military regimes around the world.”

But Rapp-Hooper also said that such military cooperation has pushed the United States to implement more muscular policy action coordination with its regional allies in Asia and other “like-minded” countries.

“We’re sharing more intelligence [with allies], aligning our policies better and coordinating policy action to combat the most problematic aspects of this cooperation,” Rapp-Hooper said, noting that Washington is also “mounting a multilateral effort to push back against” cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow that includes reaching out to Beijing.

Matt Pottinger, a former U.S. deputy national security advisor who now serves as the chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in his keynote speech that democracies “must urgently expand their capacity to manufacture munitions” and take after the example of Seoul, which he called an “arsenal of democracy,” to counter the emerging “axis” of authoritarian regimes in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang, which he characterized as an “arsenal of autocracy” for its weapons shipments to Russia.

Pottinger also called on South Korea to “strengthen its exchanges with Taiwan,” warning that Chinese President Xi Jinping is eyeing reunification with the self-governing island as a focal point for China’s “rejuvenation.”

Experts who spoke at the morning session, which focused on the implications of the upcoming U.S. presidential election for the South Korea-U.S. alliance, expressed cautious optimism that ties between the two countries could remain strong even if Donald Trump wins in a rematch against President Joe Biden.

In his comments, Hamre noted that Korea could “struggle” to keep the United States from being “too exuberant about confronting China” and making “provocative gestures without a strategic framework” given the “real head of steam building up within the Republican Party,” but that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol “could be a very effective counterpart” to a re-elected President Trump.

But Hamre also noted that a victory by Trump could bring about a “real crisis” among Washington’s European allies should he move to cease military aid to Kyiv.

Randall Schriver, who served as an assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the U.S. State Department under Trump, said there is an urgent need for South Korea and the United States “to lock in habits of cooperation,” such as their defense cost-sharing agreement, and “institutionalize” them now, rather than waiting until after the election.

But Schriver also said Seoul and Washington would likely still be “able to grind out a productive relationship” even if Trump is elected president, noting strong bipartisan support for the South Korea-U.S. alliance in Congress.

During the afternoon session, experts voiced how South Korea and the United States should approach growing ties between North Korea, China and Russia.

Allison Hooker, who formerly served as senior director for Asia in the U.S. NSC, noted that the closer relationship between the North and Russia “is reducing the leverage that China has over both countries,” but also said that Beijing would likely only cooperate with Washington and Seoul’s efforts to rein in Pyongyang’s “destabilizing” activities when its interests were aligned.

Cha, who characterized China as “jealously” guarding “what influence it has over North Korea,” said the latter’s deepening military cooperation with Russia would likely lead Beijing to make renewed overtures to Pyongyang.

Noting that Kim Jong-un likely “did not travel to Russia by train just to obtain food and fuel,” Cha expressed concern that Moscow could provide Pyongyang with nuclear submarine technology, citing recent state media reports from Pyongyang that said Kim was “pleased” after reviewing plans for such assets.

Cha argued that a North Korea with a burgeoning relationship with Russia to meet its economic and security needs has “no interest in talking to the United States,” and also predicted that such cooperation would likely cause China to reach out once more to the North, as it did after Trump announced he would meet with Kim in 2018.

Wi Sung-lac, the secretary general of the Korea Peace Foundation and the Foreign Ministry’s former special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, also called on South Korea to “strategically” exercise its existing “leverage” to induce Russia to reduce cooperation with the North, instead of “just pursuing bilateral talks.”

“In hard bargaining, South Korea can bring up what cards it could play that would cross Russia’s previously stated red lines,” Wi said without specifying what measures Seoul could float in response to a question from the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned South Korea not to supply arms to Ukraine, saying it would view such actions as “unfriendly.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]