With the upcoming 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, the world is focused on
how the outcome of the election would change Washington's foreign policy
trajectory, including its North Korea Policy. Yonho Kim, Associate Director at
the George Washington Institute for Korean Studies, asserts that if Biden is
elected as president, his North Korean policy would return the U.S. to
multilaterally imposed sanctions and heightened attention on the North
Korean human rights situation. He makes reference to Biden’s statements
during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, in which he emphasized
that he would "build a sustained, coordinated diplomatic campaign to
advance the longer-term goal of denuclearization" while supporting
"humanitarian aid and pressure the regime to cease its gross human rights
abuses." With the assumption that Biden's North Korean policy is likely to be
centered on working-level diplomacy and cooperation with U.S. allies and
partners, Professor Kim envisions that Biden's North Korean policy would
resemble the "strategic patience" campaign from the Obama administration.
While the results of the 2020 presidential election remain uncertain, Professor
Kim argues that Biden's win would open a window for removing the Trump
administration's footprints from Washington. [Read Commentary]
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