Although the Biden administration’s policy toward North Korea has not yet been released, several aspects of it became clear from the first overseas trip by Biden Cabinet officials to Asia.
Article by Bruce Klingner from Daily Signal.
Senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, met with government officials in Tokyo and Seoul on March 16-18, signaling the importance of the region to U.S. strategic objectives.
U.S. officials emphasized the Biden administration priorities for the Indo-Pacific region, addressing regional challenges through multilateralism, affirming the importance of America’s allies, remaining committed to North Korean denuclearization, and criticizing North Korean human rights.
Strident public messages from North Korea, released concurrent with the secretaries’ trip, and evident policy differences between the U.S. and South Korea marred the otherwise consistent positive messages from the meetings.
A dominant message throughout the trip was the importance of alliances to address the North Korean threat. Negotiations to reach an agreement of host-nation support negotiations with Seoul and Tokyo emphasized a return to traditional U.S. views of alliances as based on common values and Washington’s unwavering commitment to defend its Asian allies.
Details of the agreements have not yet been formally disclosed but will remove a major source of tension within the alliances.
The Biden administration repeated its commitment to engage with North Korea, and confirmed that it had unsuccessfully attempted several times to initiate dialogue with North Korea through several channels.
Blinken and Austin repeatedly emphasized that the Biden administration’s position would be to insist that North Korean fully denuclearize rather than push for more limited arms control objectives, as advocated by some outside experts.
Blinken repeatedly used the phrase “denuclearization of North Korea” to emphasize that point rather than “of the Korean Peninsula,” as contained in earlier diplomatic agreements.
The kerfuffle over terminology reflects the difference between what Pyongyang is required to do under 11 U.N. resolutions and terminology pushed by the regime to include U.S. military forces in South Korea and surrounding areas.
In the 1992 inter-Korean nuclear agreement, North Korea promised never to build nuclear weapons nor to possess the plutonium reprocessing or uranium enrichment means to do so.
In the September 2005 Six-Party Talks statement, the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea agreed to “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but Washington also insisted that Pyongyang agree to “abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.”
The failure of the Trump administration to insist on similar language in the Singapore statement, and instead accepting only the North Korean terminology, opened the door for Pyongyang to push its expansive definition.
During the secretaries’ trip, senior officials of the North Korean Kim Jong Un regime released statements harshly criticizing the United States and South Korea, and seemingly shut the door on dialogue and negotiations.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader, and First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui reiterated the regime’s long-standing defiance against complying with denuclearization requirements of U.N. resolutions and refused to engage with the United States.
Instead, Kim Yo Jong demanded that the U.S. and South Korea abandon all military exercises, even small-scale and virtual computer simulations.
North Korea has made engaging with the United States contingent on the U.S. ending its “hostile policy,” which the regime defines as all U.S. and international sanctions, the U.S.-South Korean alliance, the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea, any criticism of the regime, and even South Korea’s constitutionally-protected freedoms of media and speech.
Despite the rhetoric against engagement, Pyongyang may eventually agree to return to negotiations, either before or after yet another provocative violation of U.N. resolutions.
The Biden administration should publicly affirm its willingness to engage in talks while emphasizing that it is North Korea, not the United States, which has been the impediment to a diplomatic resolution.
Privately, the Biden administration should signal to North Korea that any provocation would undermine dialogue, lead to a stronger administration policy on North Korea, and trigger an international response.
Moving forward, the basis for negotiations should be the denuclearization requirements of the U.N. resolutions as well as North Korea’s previous promises to abandon its nuclear arsenal and programs. In the meantime, Washington must maintain a policy of strong military deterrence and continue to coordinate policies with Seoul and Tokyo.
Blinken’s and Austin’s trip made important steps in doing so.
Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We just launched a new GiveSendGo page. We also have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
