The U.S. has been working hard over the past yr to have interaction with North Korea on denuclearization — but Pyongyang has shown no interest, said Victor Cha, senior vp for Asia and Korea Chair on the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We will not simply assume that because america desires to talk, North Korea will come to the table,” Cha told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.
“The issue immediately is that North Korea shouldn’t be picking up the phone, answering the door, and is showing no interest through a wide range of different interlocutors that they’re willing to return back to speak [about] their nuclear program immediately,” he said.
The 2 countries have long been sparring over North Korea’s nuclear threats and actions toward South Korea for years.
Early Wednesday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles eastward, hours after a U.S. nuclear-armed submarine docked in South Korea — the primary in a long time.
Last week, the reclusive nation launched a long-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters, in what experts say was likely its developmental Hwasong-18 ICBM — which is harder to detect or intercept than the liquid-fuel ones.
It was North Korea’s first long-range missile test since April, and was deemed to be triggered by alleged U.S. spy plane incursions.
People watch a television broadcast showing a file image of a North Korean rocket launch on the Seoul Railway Station on May 31, 2023 in Seoul, South Korea.
Chung Sung-jun | Getty Images News | Getty Images
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell met in Seoul Tuesday for the Nuclear Consultative Group’s (NCG) inaugural meeting.
Cha said the aim of the meeting is for the U.S. to indicate South Korea a “look contained in the nuclear box,” and to garner confidence that the U.S. is committed to defending South Korea against North Korea with its nuclear capabilities.
The meeting comes almost three months after U.S. President Joe Biden and Yoon issued the Washington Declaration.
Under the Washington Declaration, the U.S. is not going to send nuclear weapons to South Korea, but will as a substitute increase the variety of military weapons and vehicles it sends to the country temporarily.
South Korea’s relationship with China
China has voiced concerns that the NCG will potentially result in an arms race and instability within the Korean peninsula.
But Cha said the U.S. is just being “proactive” relatively than “provocative.”
“China doesn’t like anything that america does with its allies to make the alliance stronger … The Chinese will at all times frame this as being threatening to their interest because they would love to dismantle the U.S. alliance system,” he said.
“If the U.S. alliance system were to interrupt down in Asia, this could have huge ramifications not only in the safety realm, but in addition within the economic and financial realm,” Cha added.
Despite their different views, South Korea still strives for an excellent relationship with China, its most vital economic partner.
South Korea wants a relationship that is based on mutual respect, which implies “they don’t desire the Chinese dictating to them how it could actually manage its own sovereign security,” Cha said.
