Summit should focus on specific steps on security, economy

This is the seventh in a “Letters to President Yoon” series The Korea Times has organized to convey policy recommendations in open letters from politicians, scholars and experts to President Yoon Suk-yeol following his May 10 inauguration. — ED.

Dear Mr. President, Congratulations on your inauguration! I attended the inauguration ceremony and had an opportunity to listen to your inaugural speech. You began by talking about all the challenges Korea faces today as you assume the burden of office. You also reminded us of the many challenges we not only survived, but turned into opportunities in the past.

Then, you shared your resolve and vision on how to lead the nation in this challenging time. Your intense emphasis on freedom as a paramount and inalienable human right was impressive. I wish you the best as you embark on the path to lead the nation and put those visions to work.

Congratulations as well for the Korea-U.S. summit which is planned with unprecedentedly early timing. Korean news media are already teeming with recommendations and suggestions for the summit. Let me add my own voice to them.

First and foremost, be yourself. Some say that President Joe Biden has deep experience in foreign policy, while it is a new bag of issues for you. But, you have the most important qualification to sit across from Biden, which is your belief in the importance of the alliance between our two countries. Biden shares the same belief, which explains why Korea ended up as the first Asian country he will visit as U.S. president.

It is particularly encouraging that you and Biden share such a belief at this juncture, when we face together so many challenges around the world. Korea thrived as a nation by taking advantage of the rules-based liberal order. Unfortunately, that order is being challenged in many parts of the world today.

This is the time when “Korea must step up,” as you rightly pointed out in the Foreign Affairs article. Korea must work with the U.S. to maintain the rules-based liberal order.

Second, take advantage of the summit to remind Biden of the current status of the North Korean nuclear threat and have summit-level exchanges as to what should be done to deter the very real threat arising from North Korea’s nuclear capability and intention.

At the 8th Party Congress held in January 2021, North Korea disclosed its five-year plan to further develop strategic and tactical nuclear weapons. A large number of missiles tested by North Korea since then have been short-range, tactical weapons. There are signs that North Korea is planning to resume nuclear testing. Many analysts think that North Korea’s next test will be focused on testing tactical nuclear weapons.

It is the combination of these weapons with North Korea’s declared intention to use them that worries me. On April 4, North Korea declared for the first time that the start of war on the Korean Peninsula will trigger it to massively employ nuclear weapons at the very start in order to “prevail in the battlefield, annihilate the military capability of the other party at an early time and obliterate the other party’s will to fight.” Such an intention was repeated later by Chairman Kim Jong-un on several different occasions.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons in the 1960s made many defense thinkers move away from planning all-out war to self-restraint and limited war for fear of what they called nuclear Armageddon. I do not see any sign of such self-restraint in North Korea’s declared nuclear doctrine, which adds significantly to the level of nuclear threat we face on the Korean Peninsula.

We have been saying between South Korea and the U.S. that we should deal with the North Korean nuclear threat through diplomacy and stern deterrence. We will have to keep the door open for diplomacy. However, given North Korea’s obsession with developing tactical nuclear weapons demonstrated in the past two years and declared intention to use them in a reckless manner, you and Biden must take advantage of the upcoming summit to substantiate what “stern deterrence” means.

Third, focus on another common denominator between you and President Biden. Both of you have said repeatedly that “economic security is national security.” That statement assumes particularly imminent and critical importance, as we have to adapt ourselves to further fragmented markets in trade, investment, technology, finance and supply chains. As a remedy, we must widen and deepen the Korea-U.S. alliance further.

I have long thought that there exists structural complementarity in the economies of our two countries. Take global supply chains as an example. President Biden made much effort to work with Samsung, LG and SK to secure supply chains for semiconductors, batteries and electric cars — relatively downstream products in the supply chain.

The most conspicuous bottlenecks in the supply chain for those Korean companies are found in cobalt, nickel, lithium, even EUV systems produced by ASML and proprietary technologies patented by U.S. companies — relatively upstream ingredients in the supply chain.

Such a complementarity has been noted by many in Korea, and Tom Frieden, former CDC director in the U.S., for example, has often suggested that the U.S. must work with South Korea to turn it into a production hub of COVID-19 vaccines for the world. It is because Frieden, along with a large number of leaders both in Korea and the U.S., understands the potential we have between our two countries to take further advantage of the complementarity between our two economies.

I wholeheartedly agree with them, and believe that you and Biden must take advantage of the upcoming summit to further advance on this avenue of cooperation between Korea and the U.S. Such efforts will significantly add to our “economic security” as well as “national security.”

Sincerely, Ahn Ho-young