Hong Hyun-ik, President of the Institute of Foreign Affairs, "The US Should First Pursue a Progressive North Korea Policy"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Hong Hyun-ik, President of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, recently stated regarding the Korean Peninsula Peace Process, “the United States, whose national power is more than 100 times stronger than North Korea, needs to first pursue a forward-looking North Korea policy to restore the damaged trust for the resumption of North Korea-US talks on denuclearization.”

In a policy research report titled ‘Evaluation of Post-Cold War North Korea Policies by Government and Future Improvement Measures,’ released through the Sejong Institute on the 7th, Hong said, “first, humanitarian aid such as vaccines, medicines, food, and drinking water, agreed upon between South Korea and the US, should be actively promoted.”

In the report, Hong evaluated South Korea’s North Korea policies during the post-Cold War period by each government since the Roh Tae-woo administration and proposed future solutions for the North Korean nuclear issue and North Korea policy, considering lessons from German reunification.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Hong repeatedly suggested the introduction of the ‘snapback’ system (a method of restoring sanctions if agreements are violated) for North Korea sanctions as a way to advance the North Korean nuclear issue.

Regarding this, he said the current sanctions against North Korea “have simply turned into a policy of punishing North Korea,” and argued that “it is necessary to introduce the snapback system to prevent North Korea’s deception and to actively induce North Korea’s denuclearization by easing sanctions starting with humanitarian sectors.”

He stated, “North Korea is increasingly likely to employ a tactic of exchanging partial and selective nuclear force dismantlement and compensation while equipping both strategic and tactical weapons,” and “the US cannot rule out the possibility of agreeing to a deal where it gives up strategic nuclear weapons first.”

He added, “The government should initially push for North Korea to give up all nuclear weapons in negotiations, but if one side must give up first, it should persuade the US to give up tactical nuclear weapons first.”

Furthermore, he reiterated the need for a mutual security perspective that does not raise issues over North Korea’s short-range missile launches, which he has advocated several times.

Regarding the North Korea policies of post-Cold War governments, he evaluated, “Overall, the Roh Tae-woo administration and progressive governments improved inter-Korean relations. Except for the Roh Tae-woo administration, conservative governments prioritized principles and ideology, leading to frequent conflicts between the two Koreas and deterioration of inter-Korean relations.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.