It Is High Time to Engage North Korea
The alternative is to do nothing and drift into an even more serious crisis as North Korea further builds up its nuclear and missile capabilities.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Jan. 15, 2024. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
The status quo in inter-Korean relations is a disaster in the making. Seoul and Washington must do what they can to improve relations with Pyongyang. The alternative is to do nothing and drift into an even more serious crisis as North Korea further builds up its nuclear and missile capabilities.
The current situation is that Kim Jong Un and Yoon Suk-yeol, the leaders of North Korea and South Korea, respectively, are locked in a cycle of dangerous, confrontational saber-rattling. Although it seems unlikely that Kim wants to start an all-out war, the risk is that he may engage in some form of military provocation against the South, and that such adventurism may lead to an unintended escalation into a much wider conflict.
One reason Kim may feel emboldened to take such risk is the broader global geopolitical environment, which now features a Cold War-like standoff in the Korean Peninsula between South Korea, the United States, and Japan on the one hand, and North Korea, China, and Russia on the other. As Beijing and Moscow are now more closely aligned with Pyongyang, Kim may feel that he has more room for taking risks vis-à-vis Seoul and Washington.
To read the full piece, visit: https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/it-is-high-time-to-engage-north-korea/
James Jongsoo Lee is Senior Managing Director at Brock Securities and Center Associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He is also Adjunct Fellow at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum and Contributing Editor at The Diplomat. He can be followed on Twitter at @jameslee004.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
