On Friday, during a crucial time for the United States-South Korea relationship, President Joe Biden will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to discuss shared priorities for our two nations. This summit presents an important opportunity to make bilateral progress, and I am hopeful that both Democrats and Republicans are united in prioritizing the challenges facing South Korea. However, the Biden administration’s actions must go beyond rhetoric in supporting our key ally and securing progress on relations with North Korea.
To ensure a productive meeting on shared U.S.-South Korea priorities, Biden must emphasize to Moon our nations’ shared commitment to counter threats from North Korea, promote human rights on the world stage, and strengthen our partnership with key allies for future generations.
The Biden administration must demonstrate its unwavering commitment to our allies and reassure them that it will not offer unwarranted concessions to our adversaries. After announcing the completion of its policy review on Korea, the Biden administration named one of its top objectives as the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This new phrasing was put forth by the Biden administration even though South Korea possesses no nuclear weapons. A stronger and clearer goal would be to attain the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.
While this may seem like a minor change, this rhetorical shift is a significant deviation from the policy stances of past administrations and gives North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un significant leverage. The change opens the door for North Korea to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troop presence in South Korea and Japan, as well as our umbrella of extended nuclear deterrence in the region, in exchange for any nuclear drawdown from North Korea.
We cannot allow North Korea to misinterpret willfully our position to assume that a reality where the U.S. withdraws completely from East Asia is possible. This will only strengthen Kim’s hand, giving him further leeway to demand unreasonable concessions of the U.S. and walk away from negotiations just as we saw in Hanoi during the Trump administration. During the upcoming summit, Biden must publicly reiterate U.S. commitment to security on the peninsula and the need for a U.S. troop presence and extended nuclear deterrence to defend South Korea.
The Biden administration must also cement its support for human rights as a prerequisite for denuclearization of North Korea. The administration can start by immediately appointing a special envoy on North Korean human rights issues. This key position, which has been vacant since 2017, is crucial toward coordinating our response to the constant oppression and abuse experienced by the North Korean people every day. Recently, I led a bipartisan letter from Congress to Biden requesting the immediate appointment of a special envoy, a request that the administration has yet to address. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the humanitarian situation as levels of starvation reach their worst point in decades.
The special envoy would also assist with future reunifications of Korean American families, most of which have been separated since the end of the Korean War nearly 70 years ago. Just as Korean families have been part of reunification efforts in the past, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken should make every effort to include Korean American families, which have been consistently left out of reunification sessions with North Korea. Time is running out for many of these aging family members, and it is crucial Biden discuss this topic with Moon during their summit. Biden would also be wise to consider two separate pieces of bipartisan legislation I helped introduce calling for the inclusion of Korean Americans in the reunification process with North Korea.
Lastly, Biden should make every effort to strengthen trilateral U.S.-South Korea-Japan and bilateral South Korea-Japan cooperation on North Korea. We must remember who our true allies are and where our collective interests lie. Continued survival through countering threats from North Korea must remain a top priority, and it requires practical and effective cooperation between South Korea and Japan to ensure success.
Biden has made strides in this area already, with his first two in-person summits hosting the heads of Japan and South Korea and including both nations in multilateral forums. However, Biden must go further with Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga by pushing for increased bilateral cooperation with Japan on North Korea.
South Korea and Japan have a complicated history that continues to this day, but cooperation does not mean ceding all historical arguments with the government of Japan. Historical issues of wartime recognition and responsibility remain as important and as relevant as ever. But as democratic nations that all share the same core values and seek to protect the international rules-based order, we must come together as one to face the existential dangers that threaten to undermine our collective security.
Biden’s meeting with Moon this week will set the tone for his administration’s true desire to support South Korea. There is great potential to strengthen the U.S.-South Korea relationship and our shared response to the challenges posed by North Korea. And we must. To truly counter North Korea, we must not only be unwavering in our commitment but also promote a steadfast alliance to present a united front in confronting Kim Jong Un.
Young Kim represents California’s 39th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
