Prepare to weather the U.S. election storms

With about 100 days left before the November presidential election in the United States, President Joe Biden abruptly resigned from his rebid for presidency on Sunday. The voluntary step-down of an incumbent U.S. president is the first since President Lyndon Johnson resigned before the 1968 election. Biden had to make the decision due to his old age and the growing demand for his resignation from leaders of the Democratic Party.

Biden supported Vice President Kamala Harris as a new Democratic candidate. But it’s too early to tell who will be the next presidential candidate given many variables until the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.

After the rare race between an active president and a former president was botched, Republican candidate Donald Trump appears to have taken a step closer to his re-election in November.

After the retreat of Biden from the campaign, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration must revise its earlier plan to deal with the results of the upcoming U.S. election, including elevating Plan B, based on Trump’s victory, to Plan A. After accepting his nomination, Trump once again boasted about his close personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “It’s good to get along with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons,” he said. “I think he will miss me.” His remarks suggest an endorsement of the North’s nuclear weapons. The government must remind the Trump camp of the principle of denuclearization through secret diplomatic channels.

The government must also devise Plan B to prepare for Harris’s election as president. She visited Panmunjom in September 2022. As her mother is Indian, the government must find people with connections with her family. It will be even better if the government can devise Plan C to brace for the nomination of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as Democratic presidential candidate.

Regardless of whoever will be elected as the next U.S. president, the most urgent job for our government is managing economic and security risks. Given the possibility of Trump scrapping the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act if he is re-elected president, Korean companies worry about the abolishment of subsidies even after building large factories in America. The expected record high trade surplus with the U.S. this year can provoke offensive trade policies from the United States.

The government must urgently restore pro-Korean networks after the Sue Mi Terry case. Close cooperation among security-related government agencies — and collaboration with the private sector — are more important than ever.