Analysis: Is Biden Summoning ‘Strategic Patience’ With North Korea?
By Polityk | 12/09/2021 | Повідомлення, ПолітикаAs the stalemate between the United States and North Korea persists, some experts are wondering whether the Biden administration is returning to the Obama-era policy of strategic patience.Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, thinks the U.S. could “by default” end up in strategic patience, which he described as a “kind of status quo and which is the comfort zone for the United States.”Strategic patience refers to the Obama administration’s lack of action after a deal to freeze and disable the Yongbyon reactor collapsed in 2012.Gause added, “After that fell through, they really didn’t try to go back to the negotiating table. … The Biden administration is made up of a lot of people that served in those administrations, and probably, their latitude for trying new things with North Korea is probably somewhat limited.”Others argue that Biden’s North Korea policy differs from Obama’s, citing the administration’s willingness to engage North Korea.”The Biden administration, in contrast to the Obama administration, [has] expressed public concern about North Korea’s nuclear development and recognized that it cannot be kicked down the road too far,” said Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday reiterated that the U.S. is ready for dialogue with North Korea.”When it comes to the United States, our goal continues to be the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Price said. “We are prepared to engage in diplomacy toward that objective.”Price continued: “We have made clear to them that Paramilitary forces parade to mark the 73rd founding anniversary of the republic at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang in this undated image supplied by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.”The Biden administration faces adverse circumstances around its efforts to engage with North Korea — in the form of North Korea’s domestic economic stress, the pandemic and North Korea’s internal political rectification campaign,” Snyder said.North Korea faces a slew of issues, including “North Korea leader Kim Jong Un attends a paramilitary parade held to mark the 73rd founding anniversary of the republic at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang in this undated image supplied by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, Sept. 9, 2021.Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. should not lift sanctions before North Korea makes a move toward denuclearization.”Since 1994, the Kim family has convinced American presidents to provide significant sanctions relief and other benefits for the promise of North Korea’s denuclearization,” Ruggiero said. “And each time, the Kim family has failed to deliver.”Ruggiero continued: “Biden should change his approach and increase the pressure on North Korea by implementing existing sanctions.”Some analysts warned that North Korea could return to brinkmanship to put pressure on the Biden administration.David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said North Korea’s demand for sanctions relief will continue in a form of “blackmail diplomacy, which is really about using threats, increased tensions, in provocations.”Repetition of past provocations such as border clashes, Yeonpyeong Island attacks, and missile and rocket tests could occur, according to Maxwell.
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