[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The biggest issue between Jeong Eui-yong, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, and Tony Blinken, the nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, who have taken the helm of diplomacy and security in Korea and the United States respectively, is expected to be whether to uphold the '2018 Singapore North Korea-U.S. Summit Declaration'.
This is because the Moon Jae-in administration and the Joe Biden administration face a crossroads on whether to attempt to establish the Korean Peninsula peace process through North Korea-U.S. or South Korea-North Korea-U.S. dialogue, or to approach the North Korean nuclear issue through multilateral diplomacy and negotiations involving South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, and North Korea.
According to diplomatic circles on the 25th, after passing their confirmation hearings, Jeong and Blinken are expected to soon engage directly in consultations to strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance and establish the Korean Peninsula peace process.
Jeong, who played a midwife role in the 2018 Singapore Declaration, and Blinken, who held the key to Korea-U.S. diplomacy and was deeply involved in the 'strategic patience' policy toward North Korea as Deputy Secretary of State during the Barack Obama administration, now hold the diplomatic reins.
However, there are clear differences in the approach to Korean Peninsula policy between our government and the U.S. administration, making it difficult to reach a consensus. Jeong is likely to prioritize coordinating North Korea policy bilaterally between Korea and the U.S., following President Moon Jae-in's stance of 'starting from the Singapore Declaration.'
However, Blinken's view differs.
He envisions Korean Peninsula policy through multilateral negotiations involving countries surrounding the peninsula such as China and Japan, rather than bilateral Korea-U.S. or trilateral South Korea-North Korea-U.S. talks.
This is clearly reflected in Blinken's emphasis during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on the 19th, where he stated regarding North Korea policy, "We will review the options available to the U.S. regarding North Korea while consulting with allies such as Japan and South Korea," and "We will start by closely consulting with our allies and partners, especially South Korea and Japan, and re-examining all recommendations."
This indicates that the Biden administration places weight on a 'bottom-up' approach based on working-level negotiations and multilateralism with allies, rather than the 'top-down' approach favored by the Trump administration, which emphasized direct negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. leaders.
In this context, it is highly likely that Blinken will not view President Moon's perspective positively. In an interview with local media last October, Blinken criticized, "President Trump exchanged love letters with the world's worst dictator and held three unprepared, empty summits."
Diplomatic experts advise that Jeong and Blinken should begin discussions by narrowing the gap between the differing views of the two leaders.
It is necessary for Jeong, the key figure of the Singapore Declaration, to meet directly with Blinken to convey the importance of establishing the Korean Peninsula peace process.
Professor Park Won-gon of Handong Global University’s Department of International Area Studies said, "While our government intends to use a declaration to formally end the war as a catalyst to bring North Korea into denuclearization negotiations, the Biden administration holds a negative view of the Trump administration’s approach itself, so efforts to bridge this gap should be prioritized."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
