Secretary Kerry Speaks Out on North Korea

North Korea has been rather busy recently. It has been test firing its submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), threatening the islands near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea, shortly followed by nighttime bombardment exercises; the list could go on. Its recent internal purges, which saw the execution of its now former chief of defense, Hyon Yong-chol, left its power structure unstable. We simply cannot expect its threats and the risks of those threats to remain as they were before. In this time of uncertainty, Secretary of State John Kerry and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se held diplomatic talks; rather appropriately timed as well, considering how the summit talks between the U.S. and South Korea are happening next month.

Secretary Kerry noted during the press conference that “the biggest security concern that [the U.S. and South Korea] share together is North Korea,” and “… the United States and South Korea will continue to modernize our alliance in order to fully and decisively counter any threat that Pyongyang may pose to peace and security on the peninsula.” Adding to that, Mr. Kerry warned that, “The current behavior [of North Korea] is certain to attract increased scrutiny of the Security Council,” confirming that “the behavior [of North Korea] gets worse, and it’s hard to imagine that given the current level of behavior, it isn’t going to ultimately wind up in that direction …”

Reconfirming our cooperative measures against North Korea is the biggest gain we won. We need to build up more substantiality based on this foundation. It is the best way to prevent further provocations from North Korea.

Mr. Kerry put extra emphasis on the importance of “[ramping] up international pressure for North Korea to change its behavior.” North Korea needs to take heed from the underlying meaning in this simple message. During his earlier visit to Beijing, Mr. Kerry pointed out “[North Korea’s] destabilizing behavior is unacceptable against any international standard.” He implicitly noted that North Korea won’t be able to gain anything with threats, nor will its threats be tolerated. North Korea has no choice but to give up its nuclear program and be part of the international community.

Seoul-Tokyo relations were one of the talk’s major agenda items as well. Since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington, there have been some concerns here about this new honeymoon phase between the U.S. and Japan. Mr. Kerry stated, “… We hope that Japan and the Republic of Korea will be able to find a mutually accepted solution … ” revealing only the principles of U.S. policy without mentioning Japan’s wrongly interpreted history. This only works to remind us that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs still has much to do when it comes to Seoul-Tokyo relations.