North Korean delegation leader Ri Son Gwon (left) and South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon shake hands 9 January 2018 during a meeting at the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea. Efforts between the two countries to reduce tensions showed signs of progress; North Korea agreed to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, and both sides agreed to reopen an emer- gency communication hotline and to resume military-to-military talks. (Photo courtesy of the South Korean Unification Ministry) North Korea Solution Changed Regime Col. James M. Minnich, U.S. Army wenty-six years of ineffective policies have State Survival as a National Interest made denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula State survival is the most vital of national interests. increasingly more illusory as the government This is acutely true for Pyongyang, which perceives Tof North Korea has repeatedly demonstrated its cred- perils everywhere. In 1979, when North Korea began ibility as a nuclear weapons possessor, irrespective of constructing its five-megawatt electrical gas-cooled international recognition. The question now is whether nuclear reactor (it already possessed a proliferation this can be reversed. resistant, two-megawatt thermal light-water reactor MILITARY REVIEW ONLINE EXCLUSIVE · JANUARY 2018 1 NORTH KOREA SOLUTION that the Soviets built in the 1960s), it was years behind A Policy of Changed Regime South Korea’s secretive nuclear weapons program, Some pundits in the news postulate that America which Seoul privately shuttered in 1981 for security needs a regime change in North Korea. That thinking is assurances and recognition of political legitimacy from narrow and thoughtless on many counts. What America 1 7 the U.S. In 1971, President Richard Nixon had re- needs is a policy of changed regime in North Korea. duced U.S. forces in Korea from sixty-three thousand What is the difference? Regime change substitutes one to forty-three thousand.2 And, in 1975, U.S. presiden- dictator for the next. Kim Jong Un is now the country’s tial candidate Jimmy Carter campaigned to withdraw third dictator, and a fourth might be no better. Changed all U.S. forces from Korea—an exhortation that he regime is a policy of never fully forsook.3 In December 1979, then Maj. Gen. consistent, prolonged en- Col. James M. Minnich, Chun Doo-hwan seized national power in a military gagement that engenders U.S. Army, is associate coup in South Korea. Five months later in May 1980, a transformation from dean and senior military he brutally cracked down on a democratic uprising within by resolute expo- professor at the Asia- in Gwangju that inflicted hundreds of casualties.4 On sures from without. A U.S. Pacific Center for Security 2 February 1981, only thirteen days after assuming foreign policy of changed Studies in Honolulu. He the U.S. presidency, Ronald Reagan, in his first sum- regime in South Korea was is a senior service col- mit, met Chun at the White House. Reagan publicly necessary for Washington lege distinguished honor extolled America’s enduring commitment in Korea and to weather its consistent, graduate from the Korean bestowed upon Chun the mantel of legitimacy.5 Seoul’s prolonged engagement National Defense University shuttering of its nuclear weapons program in exchange with Seoul, in the face in Seoul, Korea, and a for Washington’s accord of security assurances and po- of decades of successive doctoral student at the litical legitimacy is a reminder of what can be achieved military coups, electoral University of Southern with ample impetus and genuine guarantees. manipulations, human California. He has master’s So, what will it take for North Korea to surrender rights violations, and degrees from Harvard its nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons program? A democracy suppressions. University in Cambridge, resolute security assurance. This has been Pyongyang’s Washington now needs to Massachusetts, and the persistent refrain for the past quarter century. In adopt a changed-regime U.S. Army Command and December 1991, as the Soviet Union collapsed, the two policy for North Korea. General Staff College in Fort Koreas signed a treaty of reconciliation and nonag- A changed-regime pol- Leavenworth, Kansas, and a gression to advance peace by forswearing armed force icy could begin overnight, diploma in Korean language against each other. Within weeks, they also signed a as was evinced following studies from Sogang joint denuclearization declaration to further under- an abrupt inter-Korean University in Seoul. He is write peace on the peninsula. In October 1994, as the summit in Pyongyang serving his eleventh over- specter of war loomed large, the United States and in June 2000 between seas assignment with fifteen North Korea signed a framework agreement to elim- South Korean President years of military service in inate the latter’s nuclear reactors and related facilities Kim Dae-jung and North Korea since 1982. From in exchange for guarantees of security, normalized Korean Supreme Leader August 2013, he served relations, and light-water reactors.6 From 2003 to 2008, Kim Jong Il. By October, three years in Korea as the the United States, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, then U.S. president Bill secretary of the United and North Korea met in seven protracted rounds of Clinton had met in Nations Command Military dialogue to denuclearize Pyongyang in exchange for Washington with Vice Armistice Commission, guarantees of security, normalized relations, eco- Marshal Jo Myong-rok, responsible for armistice nomic cooperation, and energy assistance. In 2012, Kim Jong Il’s special envoy negotiations and super- Washington and Pyongyang signed a so-called Leap and the highest-ranking vision. He has published Day Deal to effectuate the same. All denuclearization North Korean dignitary to several books, articles, and attempts have failed, owing in large part to the disin- visit Washington. Later, on podcasts on North and genuousness of all sides. 23 October 2000, then U.S. South Korea. MILITARY REVIEW ONLINE EXCLUSIVE · JANUARY 2018 2 NORTH KOREA SOLUTION Korean People’s Army personnel launch rockets August 2017 during a target strike exercise at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo courtesy of Korean Central News Agency) secretary of state Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong Il in strategic patience, which was an unsuccessful attempt Pyongyang, making her the most senior U.S. government to pressure Pyongyang to denuclearize through U.S.- official to visit Pyongyang. led economic sanctions. During Albright’s visit, Kim appealed for security assurances, suggesting that like China’s Deng Xiaoping, he Policy Actions too could refocus his resources from defense to economic An effective changed-regime policy would quickly development with the right security assurances from undertake a series of actions that should eventually align Washington.8 Kim also told Albright that he had come to North Korean interests with those of the United States, appreciate that U.S. troops in South Korea brought a sta- bringing the entire Korean Peninsula into Washington’s bilizing force to Asia.9 Kim’s rejoinder was as it had been security sphere. At present, Washington’s interests are since the early 1990s—let us end the antithetical relation- not Pyongyang’s interests, which is why a changed-regime ship between the United States and North Korea. policy is needed to effect persistent change. America’s Detente ended as quickly as it began. The U.S. pres- chief interest is for Pyongyang to abolish its nuclear idential elections of 7 November 2000 left the United weapons and nuclear weapons program. While this may States in a constitutional crisis for weeks. Following not ameliorate the need to also eliminate chemical and President George W. Bush’s assumption of office in biological weapons, reduce missile and conventional January 2001, the euphoria of rapprochement between forces, enforce human rights, and adjudicate instances of North Korea and the United States ceased. It was re- terrorism and provocation, Washington should not lose placed by Bush’s less than hospitable approach toward focus on the important at the expense of the vital. North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.10 Such an approach by the What follows are five policy actions that are para- administration caused public humiliation of South mount in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis. They Korea’s President Kim Dae-jung and utter antipathy include changes in U.S. and allied policy related to mutual for Roh Moo-hyun, who followed Kim Dae-jung as security assurances, relations normalization, nuclear president from 2003 to 2008.11 This was followed by weapons and its program abatement and abolishment, eight more years of President Barack Obama’s policy of cooperative prosperity, and nonnuclear energy provision. MILITARY REVIEW ONLINE EXCLUSIVE · JANUARY 2018 3 NORTH KOREA SOLUTION Vehicles from 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, participate in Suho Lightning, a combined training exercise with the Republic of Korea Army, 13 November 2017 at Twin Bridges, South Korea. Suho Lightning was conducted in conjunction with Warfighter 18-02, a peninsula-wide, division-level simulation training exercise that incorporated U.S. and Korean forces. (Photo by Sgt. Patrick Eakin, U.S. Army) Security assurances. First, it is necessary to ex- United States would have had [in North Korea] a new tend to Pyongyang security assurance by lessening friend in Northeast Asia.”12 the perceived threats North Korea has with regard Relations normalization. The United States and to its territorial sovereignty across the entire Korean its allies must promptly normalize state and economic Peninsula. This will require more than pronounce- relations, thereby legitimizing North Korea as a state ments and accords—it will necessitate tangible actions. and Kim Jong Un as its supreme leader.