Joe Biden Ready to Meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un if Elected President, Claims Adviser

Despite North Korean and US officials embarking on several rounds of talks on the prospects of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula, and US President Donald Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un on several occasions and establishing a personal rapport, the negotiations have stalled.

Joe Biden is prepared to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if Democratic candidate triumphs in the November US presidential elections, Yonhap News Agency reports.

According to Brian McKeon, who has been closely working with Joe Biden since 1985, although necessary groundwork would be required first, a meeting would go ahead if it was seen as facilitating the denuclearisation of the communist nation.

McKeon, who is currently on leave as Senior Director at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement, underscored that the former vice president’s approach toward North Korea would be different from that of President Donald Trump.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden waves as he boards his plane to depart Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., October 10, 2020.

Approach to the North Korean issue would hinge on a future assessment of the current situation, and would also likely differ from that of the Barack Obama administration where Biden served as vice president, underscored McKeon.

‘Principled Strategy’ Touted

According to the adviser, a meeting between Joe Biden and Kim Jong-un would only be feasible if there were credible signs of possible progress.

McKeon slammed Donald Trump for having launched into a “leader meeting” without first mapping out a strategy “to get to our objectives”.

President Trump has often underscored his “great relationship” with the North Korean leader, while touting the economic benefits of denuclearisation for the communist nation.

In this June 30, 2019, file photo President Donald Trump, right, listens as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, speaks during their bilateral meeting inside the Freedom House at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea

McKeon, who served as the former vice president’s foreign policy adviser from 1988 to 1995, while he was a US senator, said that a “principled approach to the North Korea challenge” would be taken by an administration led by Joe Biden, adding:

Joe Biden went on record accusing Donald Trump of “cozying up to dictators” and making concessions without receiving much in return in his 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech, while not mentioning North Korea or Kim Jong Un by name.

McKeon made reference to one such instance of perceived concessions when Trump scaled down joint military exercises with South Korea.

The United States and South Korea announced in 2019 that they would no longer carry out their large-scale springtime military exercises in an effort to improve diplomatic ties with North Korea. The move came on the heels of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un. The drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, were abandoned in favour of smaller training programmes.

As for the humanitarian aspect of the situation, Biden, according to the adviser, supports resuming assistance to the North Korean people, as well as a resumption of the reunion process of Korean families, separated by the division of the two Koreas.

The adviser conceded that the existing deadlock in nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea, and international sanctions on Pyongyang complicate humanitarian assistance.

Yet again, an assessment of the current situation would be required before the issue of removing sanctions were broached, added McKeon.

“Sanctions are certainly part of the toolkit to pressure the North Korean regime to negotiate seriously about denuclearization. Sanctions are not an end in themselves,” he said.

The adviser to the Democratic presidential candidate also reassured South Korea and other allies that a Biden administration would seek to reaffirm US commitment to its alliances.

Stalled US-North Korea Dialogue

US President Donald Trump has held three bilateral meetings, including two summits, with the North Korean leader.
Trump and Kim Jong-un met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore, when the two leaders signed an agreement in line with which Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear weapons.

The second summit in early 2019 in Vietnam ended abruptly.

People take pictures in front of a poster featuring the upcoming second summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Hanoi, Vietnam

At the time, Trump said that the deal had broken down because the North Korean leader wanted complete sanctions relief for dismantling the main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, but the US wanted other nuclear facilities disabled as well.

The US President and the DPRK leader subsequently met in June 2019 in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Although they agreed to resume negotiations, in October talks between the two sides reached an impasse, with Washington refusing to lift sanctions against the country and cut down its military presence in South Korea unless Pyongyang denuclearises.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

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