Is it Time for a New Policy Toward North Korea – A Cipher Brief Debate

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By Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper (Ret.)

Lt. Gen. James Clapper served from 2010 – 2017 as the Director of National Intelligence. He served in two administrations as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and directed the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), transforming it into the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

By Ambassador Joseph DeTrani

Ambassador Joseph DeTrani served as the U.S. Representative to the Korea Energy Development Organization (KEDO), as well as former CIA director of East Asia Operations. He also served as Associate Director of National Intelligence and Mission Manager for North Korea, was the Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks with North Korea, and served as the Director of the National Counter Proliferation Center, ODNI.  He currently serves on the Board of Managers at Sandia National Laboratories.

North Korea’s party Congress, held earlier this month, offered some insight into what Leader Kim Jong Un is thinking when it comes to the country’s nuclear ambitions with a Biden Administration now in office. Kim told the Eighth Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), that no matter who takes power in the United States, North Korea’s nature and policy toward the US will never change.  

The US, under Trump, did change its approach to North Korea, offering high-level meetings that gave Kim a win in the eyes of his own people, but the negotiations failed to make progress toward the centerpiece of US policy toward North Korea.  

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