A U.S. Expert on Korean Peninsula, ‘Biden Should Lift Sanctions on North Korea and Launch a Comprehensive Response’

Overcoming North Korea’s economic hardship is a political opportunity

A suggestion has been made that President Joe Biden of the United States should take “overcoming North Korea’s economic hardship” as an opportunity to resolve the security crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

According to Yonhap News on the 18th, Professor John Delury at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) stated this in an op-ed titled A Solution on North Korea Is There if Biden Will Only Grasp It published in the New York Times on the 16th.

Professor Delury first posited the premise that an armed conflict scenario on the Korean Peninsula could pose a considerable burden to the Biden administration. For him, who is currently supporting two wars simultaneously, an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula can only serve as an additional burden.

Moreover, a conflict within the Korean Peninsula could work in favor of former President Donald Trump, who is again forming a rivalry ahead of the presidential election. Trump is highly likely to use his willingness and strategy to improve relations with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un as a political windfall.

At this point, Professor Delury emphasized that “a new diplomatic solution must be sought.”

He explained, “Kim Jong Un traveled by train for 60 hours from Pyongyang to Hanoi to meet then-US President Trump in 2019,” and “What persuaded Kim Jong Un was the possibility of easing US economic sanctions against North Korea.”

Professor Delury suggested that as the success or failure of a new diplomatic solution depends on President Biden’s will, he should consider appointing a heavyweight figure like John Kerry, who served as the president’s top diplomat on climate change and the Democratic nominee for president, as the new presidential envoy and announcing a comprehensive new North Korea policy.

He emphasized, “Only the US president can connect with Kim Jong Un, and only Kim Jong Un can change North Korean policy.”

He also stressed the need to switch the principle of denuclearization that the US has consistently maintained for decades into a different language.

Professor Delury argued, “It is unrealistic to think that Pyongyang will give up nuclear weapons shortly,” and “Nuclear disarmament can remain a long-term goal, but without bilateral talks, even this is impossible.”

Professor Delury emphasized, “The US must recognize reality,” and “The world situation has changed significantly from the 2000s when six-party talks were held to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.”

John Delury, a Yale University history Ph.D. graduate, is currently an associate professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) after serving as a professor of political science at Columbia University in the United States. He is known as one of the leading experts on North Korea among U.S. history and political science scholars.