October 21, 2022 | The New York Times

Don’t Let Up on North Korea

October 21, 2022 | The New York Times

Don’t Let Up on North Korea

To the Editor:

In “It’s Time to Accept That North Korea Has Nuclear Weapons” (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Oct. 13), Jeffrey Lewis urges the United States “to face reality” and stop pressing Pyongyang to disarm. He’s wrong, and his advice will lead to a more dangerous world.

The crux of his argument is that President Trump, at his February 2019 summit in Hanoi with Kim Jong-un, should have taken the limited nuclear deal Mr. Kim offered.

Mr. Lewis notes that the deal could have allowed the parties to negotiate “commitments of good behavior from Pyongyang and perhaps even some gesture toward disarmament in exchange for sanctions relief and economic assistance.” Yet Washington has tried to purchase good behavior many times since 1994, only to see Pyongyang break almost all its promises.

Another glaring flaw in Mr. Lewis’s approach is that welcoming North Korea into the nuclear club would guarantee that Iran pursues nuclear weapons, confident it would never be held accountable. This would also push Iran’s neighbors to go nuclear.

By trying to solve the growing threat from Pyongyang, Mr. Lewis would create many others.

Anthony Ruggiero
Washington
The writer is senior director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He was director for North Korea (2018-19) and senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense (2019-21) on the National Security Council. Follow him on Twitter @NatSecAnthonyFDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

Issues:

Military and Political Power Nonproliferation North Korea