Could Trump Solve the North Korea Puzzle Again? Insights from a Former NSC Director

Allison Hooker, former Director for Korea on the National Security Council (NSC), stated on the 16th (local time) that if former U.S. President Donald Trump were to regain power, communication between the U.S. and North Korea would likely resume. She argued that a summit would be the best approach.

During the Trump administration, Hooker worked on Korean Peninsula issues and visited Pyongyang, North Korea, multiple times with Mike Pompeo, then Secretary of State. She was deeply involved in the summits between then-President Trump and Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea. These summits occurred in Singapore on June 12, 2018, in Hanoi, Vietnam, from February 29 to 30, 2019, and at the DMZ on June 30, 2019.

At an online forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., Hooker said, “Trump loves solving big problems,” and “he could give the North Korea issue another go.”

Hooker stated, “Trump will want to see a resolution, whether it’s nuclear, a threat from North Korea, or anything else. What he wants to solve is clear, but how he gets there is unpredictable.”

If Trump were to regain power, Hooker believes that “at least the resumption of communication” between the U.S. and North Korea would be possible. As long as Kim Jong Un holds supreme decision-making power, she argued that a U.S.-North Korea summit-level dialogue is the best approach for significant breakthroughs and policy implementation.

Regarding the possibility of a summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, Hooker said, “Many people will want Trump to jump straight into talks with Kim Jong Un, but I think Trump won’t knock on the door himself. He’ll want the other side to knock.”

Hooker predicted that Kim Jong Un might want to re-engage in diplomacy with the U.S., but he will likely do so from a strong position and is currently working to build that strong position.