Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s lead ambassador for talks with North Korea has decided to retire, to the dismay of a top Senate Democrat.
“[W]e have lost our lead negotiator on North Korean denuclearization efforts,” New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday after Ambassador Joseph Yun announced his plan to retire. “Without the full weight of a robust diplomatic presence in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States will be left on the sidelines at a time when we can least afford it. The stakes are too high.”
Yun has served as the special representative for North Korea since 2016. In that role, he has helped to coordinate an international sanctions campaign while also maintaining quiet contact with the regime to secure the release of Americans imprisoned in the country. His departure comes on the heels of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, which saw the North Korean delegation cancel a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
His retirement was personal, rather than related to any policy issues. “The secretary reluctantly accepted his request to retire,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Tuesday. “When someone comes to you and says, ‘Hey look, I really want to retire, I’ve been here 34 years, and I want to spend time with my family,’ it’s hard to argue against that. Our policy has not changed. The secretary is certainly not going to force somebody to stay on the job.”
Menendez described the retirement as a blow to U.S. diplomacy and faulted the Trump administration for not having a larger cadre of ambassadors in place for the region.
“Fourteen months into this administration we still lack an ambassador in South Korea, a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for East Asia, and now we have lost our lead negotiator on North Korean denuclearization efforts,” he said. “The president must immediately name a new ambassador to South Korea, replace Mr. Yun, and commit to a sensible, pragmatic path forward toward diplomacy and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.”
Nauert emphasized that Yun’s departure doesn’t strip the administration of senior Korea experts. “We have a deep bench of very experienced people,” she said.
