SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The President of South Korea on Monday asked the new Biden government to build on the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic involvement with North Korea.
A pacifist liberal and son of northern war refugees, Moon Jae-in has lobbied strongly to help organize Trump’s three summit meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but his diplomacy has stalled due to disagreements over facilitation disabling US-led sanctions for disarmament in the North.
Biden accused Trump of pursuing the spectacle of the summits, rather than significant restrictions on the nuclear capabilities of the North. North Korea has a history of testing weapons and other provocations to test new U.S. presidents, and Kim has vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent political speeches that were seen as an attempt to pressure the new Biden government.
The South Korean leader is desperate to maintain a positive atmosphere for dialogue alive in the face of Kim’s vows to further expand a nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian American allies and the American homeland.
And while Moon acknowledged that Biden is likely to try a different approach than Trump, he emphasized that Biden can still learn from Trump’s successes and failures in dealing with North Korea.
During an almost virtual press conference in Seoul, Moon said Kim still had a “clear willingness” to denuclearize if Washington and Pyongyang could find mutually acceptable measures to lessen the nuclear threat and ensure the security of the North. Most experts see Kim’s recent comments as further proof that he will maintain his weapons program to ensure the survival of his regime.
When asked about the North’s efforts to increase its ballistic ability to attack targets across South Korea, including American bases there, Moon said the South could sufficiently deal with such threats with its missile defense systems and other military resources.
“The beginning of the Biden government offers a new opportunity to restart negotiations between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea”, which were paralyzed amid the deadlock in nuclear negotiations, said Moon.
“North Korea’s efforts to expand its nuclear program and acquire more weapons systems are due to the fact that we have not yet been able to reach an agreement on denuclearization and peacemaking. These are problems that can be successfully resolved in the dialogue, ”he said.
During an eight-day congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party, which ended last week, Kim described the United States as “his country’s main enemy”. He did not entirely rule out the talks, but said the fate of bilateral relations would depend on Washington abandoning its hostile policy towards Pyongyang.
The erosion in inter-Korean relations was a major setback for Moon, who met Kim three times in 2018 while expressing ambitions to restart inter-Korean economic engagement when possible, expressing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects .
Moon said the South would continue to look for ways to improve relations with the North within the limits of sanctions, such as seeking humanitarian assistance and joint anti-virus efforts against COVID-19.
But Kim, during the ruling party congress, has already described these offers as “unnecessary” while criticizing South Korea for its own efforts to strengthen defense capabilities and continue annual military exercises with the United States, which have been curtailed under Trump to make room for diplomacy.
Experts say Pyongyang is pressing Seoul to secede from Washington, interrupting its joint exercises, challenging sanctions and restarting inter-Korean economic cooperation.
During Trump’s first summit with Kim in June 2018, they pledged to improve bilateral relations and cast vague aspirational votes on a Korean peninsula without nuclear weapons, without describing when and how it would occur.
But the negotiations faltered after their second meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for relief from major sanctions in exchange for the dismantling of an old nuclear reactor, which would mean a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Moon said the Trump and Kim deal at their first meeting was still relevant and the Biden administration should learn from the failures of their second meeting,
“The Singapore declaration under the Trump administration was a very important statement for denuclearization and peace-building on the Korean Peninsula,” said Moon.
“Of course, it is very unfortunate that the (content of) the statement remains theoretical because of the failures to support it with concrete agreements,” he said. “But if we start over from the Singapore declaration and resume negotiations on concrete measures, it is possible that diplomacy between North Korea and the United States and between South and North Korea will pick up pace again.”
Moon said he hopes to find Biden as soon as possible and that South Korean officials are actively communicating with his American colleagues to ensure that the North Korea issue remains a priority for the new US government, which inherits an outbreak of horrendous coronavirus and internal political turmoil.