October 4, 2023 - Security on the Korean Peninsula - Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on East

The recent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, was a stark reminder of how the geopolitical trends in the region are shifting as well as the cost of passive diplomacy toward North Korea. [...] On the heels of the trilateral summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan at Camp David, Moscow’s willingness to host Kim at the space launch facility and openly engage North Korea on rocket and satellite technologies, fighter jets and other military technologies, appears to signal more than just a potential arms deal in the works to help prolong Russia’s warfighting ability in Ukrain. [...] To create a political environment conducive to and build momentum for diplomacy, Kim took a number of positive unilateral steps ahead of the first US-DPRK summit in Singapore, including a self-declared moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile testing, the return of US detainees, partial demolition of the country’s nuclear test site, and partial dismantlement of the country’s main rocket launch. [...] This, as some scholars have noted, marks a “fundamental shift away from the North’s 30+ year policy of nonalignment with China or Russia and efforts to normalize relations with the United States.” Moves were swift to strengthen relations with China and Russia, with the North Korean defense minister pledging in 2022, “strategic and tactic[al] coordinated operations with the Chinese army, and Kim Jo. [...] They note, the biggest flaw in US policy “is the belief that the United States can somehow bully North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons.” This notion that we can force North Korea to a point where they must choose between denuclearization and survival belies the extent to which North Korea has been able to adapt to the various restrictions imposed upon it, find partners willing to violate.