WEBINAR: North Korea: Next Steps for the Trump Administration

During this week’s Center for Security Policy national security webinar, national security expert Claudia Rosett discussed with Center for Security Policy President Fred Fleitz the state of play on U.S.-North Korea relations, the status of Kim Jong Un and next steps for President Trump’s North Korea policy.

Claudia Rosett has long followed North Korea. She is a foreign policy fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum and an award-winning journalist who has reported over the past 37 years from Asia, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and the Middle East.  Rosett also is a former Wall Street Journal staff writer and blogs at “The Rosett Report” at PJ Media.  She often appears on cable news shows, especially on Fox news.

The webinar began with a discussion of rumors earlier this month that North Korean leader Kim had died and who his successor might be. Rosett said that the wide ranging and mostly erroneous speculation about Kim’s fate reflected how little the outside world knows about the inner workings of the Kim regime. Fleitz asked her about reports that Kim’s sister Kim Jo Jong might succeed him if he died. Fleitz also noted a Wall Street Journal op-ed Rosett wrote on this subject titled “Kim Yo Jong: Twisted Sister.”  Rosett explained that she believes it is likely that Ms. Kim currently is next in line to rule North Korea. She also added that Americans should not be fooled by the 30-something Ms. Kim’s attractiveness and charm.  Rosett noted that Ms. Kim is a senior entrusted advisor to the North Korean leader and is as much a monster as he is. If she was to gain power, the North Korean regime’s dangerously belligerent foreign policy and abysmal human rights record would continue, according to Rosett.

Fleitz then asked Rosett about President Trump’s North Korea policy, especially his personal diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim and the summits between the two leaders. Rosett said she did originally not like the idea of President Trump meeting with Kim and worried that these one-on-one meetings with the North Korean leader legitimized him. On other hand, Rosett believes these meetings were useful in that they at least temporarily reduced tensions and suspended North Korean nuclear tests. She added however, that Trump’s North Korea policy has not changed Pyongyang’s belligerent policies and that there has been little progress in negotiating an agreement between the two countries.

Rosett and Fleitz agreed that the impasse in negotiations between North Korea and the United States probably stemmed from an expectation by North Korean leaders that if they dragged their feet, U.S. diplomats would eventually offer major concessions in exchange for an agreement. Rosett and Fleitz recalled how this was the case for the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations: the US made major concessions for lopsided deals with North Korea that it soon violated.

A member of the audience asked Rosett who the North Korean government likely wanted to win the 2020 US presidential election. Rosett answered that as much as North Korean leader Kim probably enjoys his personal relationship with President Trump and exchanging letters with him, the Kim regime probably would prefer to deal with a Biden presidency in the belief that it would be more likely to attempt to buy off North Korea in exchange for a weak agreement on its nuclear program.

There were two issues that Rosett was quite adamant about during the discussion.

First, she believes the ultimate solution to the threat from North Korea is regime change. While Rosett gives President Trump credit for lowering tensions with North Korea and recognizes that his personal diplomacy may have, at least in the short term, reduced the chances for war, she does not believe the Kim government will ever negotiate with the United States in good faith and only uses negotiations to buy time to build more weapons and develop its military.

Second, Rosett stressed the urgency not to ignore the abysmal human rights situation in North Korea that is just as bad under Kim Jong Un as under his father and grandfather.  She noted this is a leader who executed hundreds of generals and other high-level government officials, as well as his uncle and brother-in-law.

Concerning future steps for President Trump’s North Korea policy, Rosett believes the president should stay the course with his personal diplomacy and keep pushing North Korea to follow through on its commitments to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the United States. Although she is not optimistic that these negotiations will succeed, she sees value in continuing these bilateral exchanges as a way to lower tensions. Rosett worries, however, that despite this dialogue, North Korea may decide to conduct another underground nuclear test to gain leverage and attention for itself as it is done many times in the past.

This is just a brief synopsis of the Rosett-Fleitz discussion about North Korea in this one-hour webinar.  We encourage you to watch the webinar in its entirety to hear their discussion of these and other issues related to the future of President Trump’s North Korea policy.