U.S. President Joe Biden and Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in on Friday injected fresh urgency into attempts to engage the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in dialogue over its nuclear weapons, with Biden saying he would meet its leader Kim Jong Un under the right conditions.
At a joint news conference, Biden and Moon both said the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is their goal. Biden said he was "under no illusions" about the difficulty of getting the DPRK to give up its nuclear arsenals after his predecessors failed.
"We both are deeply concerned about the situation," Biden said, adding that he and Moon shared a willingness to engage diplomatically with the DPRK "to take pragmatic steps to reduce tensions."
Pyongyang thus far has rebuffed U.S. entreaties for diplomacy since Biden took over from Donald Trump, who had three summits with Kim and the two famously exchanged "beautiful letters." Kim nonetheless refused to give up his nuclear weapons but did impose a freeze on testing them.
DPRK has not tested a nuclear bomb nor launched an inter-continental ballistic missile since 2017, although experts believe Kim's arsenal has steadily grown.
Biden said he would be willing to meet Kim under the right conditions – if he agreed to discuss his nuclear program and that his advisers first met with their DPRK counterparts to lay the groundwork.
The two presidents participated in a Medal of Honor ceremony Friday honoring Korean War-era Army Colonel Ralph Puckett in the East Room at the White House, and sat down in an expanded bilateral meeting with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Biden also announced that Sung Kim, an American diplomat of Korean descent, will be the new special envoy to the DPRK.
The ROK had been pushing for the appointment of an envoy, and Moon, for whom engagement with DPRK is a legacy issue before he leaves office next year, said Sung Kim would help explore whether the DPRK is willing to engage diplomatically. He said he expected a positive response.
Sung Kim had served as special envoy for DPRK under former President Barack Obama and helped set up Trump's summits with Kim Jong Un.
He has also been ambassador to the ROK, the Philippines and Indonesia and most recently served in an acting capacity as the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia.
Biden said that for him to meet with Kim there would have to be a commitment from the DPRK leader "that there's discussion about his nuclear arsenal."
"I would not do what had been done in the recent past; I would not give him all he's looking for – international recognition as legitimate and allow him to move in the direction of appearing to be more ... serious about what he wasn't at all serious about," he said.
In their day of talks, Biden and Moon reaffirmed a strong alliance between the two countries after the strains created by Trump, who badgered Moon as weak and threatened to pull U.S. troops out of the ROK.
Moon was the second foreign leader – after Japan's prime minister – to visit the White House since Biden took office in January, and Biden said their conversations were those of "old friends."
In another win for Moon, who has faced pressure at home over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said the U.S. and ROK had agreed a vaccine partnership that would combine U.S. expertise and South Korea's production capacity.
He said this would help supply COVID-19 vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region, while Biden said the U.S. would provide vaccinations for 550,000 ROK soldiers.
(Cover: U.S. President Joe Biden reacts as ROK's President Moon Jae-in speaks during a joint news conference after a day of meetings at the White House, in Washington, U.S. May 21, 2021. /Reuters)
(With input from Reuters)
Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!