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| 2026-07-10 03:05:57
(News Focus) US diplomacy-N Korea
(News Focus) Debate grows over how to tackle N. Korea's nuclear threats amid stalled dialogue
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Yonhap) -- Amid stalled nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, a debate is growing over how to address its nuclear conundrum, with some calling for a continued U.S. policy focus on its denuclearization and others advocating a more pragmatic approach.
The debate comes amid an increasingly complex reality: Pyongyang has been doubling down on its evolving nuclear and missile programs amid deepening cooperation with Moscow and Beijing, while talks with Washington and Seoul have remained dormant for years.
Both U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have voiced their desire to resume dialogue with North Korea, but the recalcitrant regime has shown little interest in dialogue, reiterating a push to bolster its nuclear force "exponentially" and calling its nuclear status "irreversible."
Amid the deadlock with Pyongyang, questions have emerged over whether there should be a policy shift to bring the regime back to dialogue for at least confidence-building or tension reduction at a time when the United States is heavily consumed with other pressing challenges, including the war with Iran.
Then came a proposal by Victor Cha, president of the geopolitics and foreign policy department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, that the U.S. abandon its longstanding but unsuccessful focus on North Korea's denuclearization and shift toward "immediate" goals, including arms control.
Cha made the proposal in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine in April, calling for a policy shift to pursue a "cold peace" with the North -- a relationship prioritizing dialogue to prevent miscalculation and escalation.
"Denuclearization is a noble goal, but past policy failures and North Korea's dogged determination to obtain weapons have made it unattainable for now," he said.
"Washington needs to shift the logic of its strategy from disarming North Korea's nukes to achieving immediate goals that will make the United States more secure against those weapons."
He highlighted that instead of making denuclearization a prerequisite for any negotiation, the U.S. should open talks with Pyongyang on arms control agreements, limits on nuclear testing and missile production, crisis management mechanisms and bans on the transfer of nuclear weapons or technology to others.
However, he advised U.S. policymakers not to renounce denuclearization, but to acknowledge it as a "distant" objective.
His proposal fueled concerns that it could amount to a de facto recognition of the North's nuclear status as questions still persist over the credibility of America's commitment to South Korea at a time when the Pentagon has called for Seoul to take "primary" responsibility for deterring the North with "critical but more limited" U.S. support.
Apparently mindful of such concerns, U.S. officials have reiterated the Trump administration's commitment to the North's denuclearization.
"With regard to North Korea, I think (its denuclearization) is very high up on the priority list," David Wilezol, deputy assistant secretary of state for Japan, Korea and Mongolia, said during a forum in Washington last month.
"I am not going to get into a ranking game, but certainly the conversations about North Korea that occur in any presidential administration, and certainly in ours, revolve around denuclearization," he added.
The diplomat pointed out that during the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in May, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea's denuclearization, and that the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries also did so during their summit in France last month.
In an opinion piece released by the Daily Caller, a U.S. media outlet, last month. Fred Fleitz, a former aide to Trump, criticized experts' call for shifting the policy focus away from denuclearization as "defeatism." He served as chief of staff of the National Security Council during Trump's first term,
"This is the same tired defeatism that has failed for decades. President Donald Trump rejected it in his first term, and he rejects it now. He still plans to denuclearize North Korea -- not accommodate it," he wrote.
He called cold peace "code for managed decline."
"Accepting a nuclear North Korea doesn't stabilize Asia -- it destabilizes it," he said. "This also tells Iran, China and every would-be proliferator that the U.S. lacks the will to enforce its red lines. It also threatens our South Korean and Japanese allies, who rely on U.S. extended deterrence."
Bruce Bennett, a security expert formerly affiliated with RAND Corp., largely agreed with the idea of "cold peace" with North Korea, which he described in his own terms as "peace through strength and diplomacy."
He, in particular, pointed to the need to lower tensions with the North.
"I do believe that the U.S. should attempt to reduce tensions with North Korea because Kim could well decide to carry out military action against South Korea or the U.S. for a variety of reasons if he senses U.S. hostility -- whether it is there or not," he told Yonhap News Agency via email.
"With less tensions, hopefully the chances of some major crises are reduced, and Kim's internal justification for needing nuclear weapons is weakened."
The heated debate underscores the tricky nature of the nuclear conundrum that has long eluded South Korean administrations.
The current Lee government has pursued a three-stage approach to North Korea that seeks to first freeze its nuclear weapons, then reduce them and ultimately denuclearize the North -- in what could be a lengthy process reflecting the tough reality of negotiations with the regime.
"In the long-term, we definitely have to move toward denuclearization. In realistic terms, we have to engage in substantive dialogue (with the North) based on short-, medium- and long-term objectives," Lee told a press conference last month.
Lee also stressed, "We should neither turn a blind eye to reality by clinging to ideals, nor abandon our ideals by clinging to reality."
Observers are pinning hopes on Trump's openness to dialogue with Kim to rekindle nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.
The White House has repeatedly said that Trump remains open to talks with the North Korean leader "without any preconditions."
Trump held three in-person meetings with Kim during his first term -- the first summit in Singapore in June 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019 and the last at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom in June 2019.
Lee has pledged that South Korea will play a role as a "pacemaker" to help Trump serve as a "peacemaker" for the Korean Peninsula.
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