How will Biden administration approach N. Korea?
  • 3 years ago
바이든의 대북정책 방향은?

The new U.S. administration also means new policies and approaches to North Korea.
Unlike the Trump administration's straightforward, top to bottom approach, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to go for more of a careful, bottom-up style.
Our Kim Dami has more.
20 years ago, when the two Koreas held their very first summit, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden backed Seoul's so-called 'Sunshine Policy.'
That was then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's engaging and economically supportive approach to Pyeongyang.
But Biden's favorable attitude toward the regime turned icy in 2012 when the North broke the pledges that were reached during the 'February 29th Agreement' with Washington.
Biden's current stance against the North is an extension of his distrust in the regime's commitment to denuclearization.
Biden has already made it clear that he is willing to meet with Kim Jong-un but under one condition: that the Korean Peninsula is to be a nuclear-free zone.
"Because North Korea is a problem, and we are going to continue to do it so we can control them. We are going to make sure we can control them and make sure they cannot hurt us."
With his top priority as new president being to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden is not expected to tackle matters related to North Korea just yet.
"The Trump administration spent two months reevaluating the Obama administration. Biden will probably announce new policies toward the North. But it's highly likely that there'll be no message to the regime for the first couple of months."
Instead, unlike the Trump administration, Biden will go for more of bottom-up approach with multilateral negotiations.
"There must be a combination of expert and summit collaborating each other. The leader ignoring or isolating the experts will never work."
North Korea is yet to comment on the result of the election.
While watchers voice concerns that the regime may react to the U.S.' new leadership by testing an inter-continental ballistic missile, Seoul's unification ministry has urged Pyeongyang to adjust to the changes in a wise, careful manner.
Kim Dami, Arirang News.
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