North Korea’s missile test does not discourage South Korean president
The former U.S. ambassador to South Korea warned that premature sanctions relief and downsizing joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington put them on the “road to failure.” He also came out against South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s plan to declare an end to the Korean War.
Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, attended a webinar hosted by the Washington Times Foundation on Wednesday and made the following comments:
“I’ll simply say that the quest for dialogue with the North must never be made at the expense of the ability to respond to threats from the North,” he said. “Dialogue and military readiness must go hand in hand…I firmly believe that we must not relax sanctions or reduce joint military exercises just to get North Korea to come to the negotiating table. This is a tried and true road to failure.”
Ambassador Harris also questioned the importance of an end-of-war declaration at this point. He said we should ask what would change after such a declaration.
“It’s not a peace treaty,” he said. “The armistice will still be excellent. Our treaty obligations to defend South Korea will still be excellent. And North Korea’s missile, nuclear chemical and conventional capabilities will still be excellent.”
Harris argued that Kim Jong-un has four objectives – sanctions relief, keeping nuclear weapons, splitting the U.S.-ROK alliance, and dominating the Korean Peninsula.
“On North Korea, I do not believe that is a rosy scenario,” he said. “I think it’s a dark scenario, getting darker every day. We have done I think all that we could do with regard to encouraging North Korea to come back to the negotiating table without any preconditions at all. And I think it’s up to them.”
Ambassador Joseph Detrani, the former Special Envoy for the six-party talks with North Korea, also argued that there are no signs that North Korea is ready to resume talks.
“I think the longer this goes on and North Korea builds more nuclear and missile capabilities, and becomes that much more reliant on the People’s Republic of China and the opportunities that are available to North Korea will fade, the opportunities of going back to negotiations to where they can become more of a legitimate nation state and they can get sanctions relief, et cetera, will dissipate significantly,” he said.
In a sign of its continued aggression, North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile off its east coast on Wednesday. The launch occurred just hours before President Moon Jae-in attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a rail line he hopes will eventually connect the divided Korean Peninsula.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea fired a missile around 8:10 a.m. Many experts in South Korea argued that North Korea responded to Moon’s proposal to officially end the Korean War before his terms ends in May with the missile launch.
In remarks at the ceremony, Moon acknowledged that the launch raised concerns about renewed tensions, but he still seemed to focus on making a breakthrough with North Korea.
“We should not give up hope for dialogue in order to fundamentally overcome this situation,” he said. “If both Koreas work together and build trust, peace would be achieved one day.”
A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department sent a statement to the Voice of America condemning North Korea’s missile launch.
“The U.S. condemns the DPRK’s ballistic missile launch,” the spokesperson said. “This launch is in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international community. We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue. Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”
