"Denuclearization Is Going to Come from the End of the Kim Regime": Robert Joseph

News Summary

Dr. Robert Joseph, a senior scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy and former U.S. special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation, said that denuclearization is going to come from the end of Kim regime, not from negotiations.

At a forum on the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance on Capitol Hill on May 17, 2023, Dr. Joseph stated, “We have put nuclear disarmament at the center of our policy on North Korea for 30 years, and we have failed consistently for 30 years...This notion that we can negotiate with something as evil as North Korea is something I have trouble comprehending. North Korea is a 21st century Nazi Germany. Can you negotiate with Nazi Germany? Sure, we did. [Former British Prime Minister Neville] Chamberlain came home to London, waving a piece of paper saying 'Peace for our time.' He proved you can negotiate with evil. But he also proved what happens when you do that."

He added, "Yes, we need denuclearization. But we should understand that denuclearization is not going to come from negotiation. It's going to come from the end of the Kim regime."

Commentary

Dr. Joseph's statement, "North Korea is a 21st century Nazi Germany. Can you negotiate with Nazi Germany?" pinpoints the essence of North Korea dilemma by shedding light on the nature of the Kim regime. The failure of numerous diplomatic efforts over the last 30 years, including South Korea's Sunshine Policy and the Six Party Talks, to halt North Korea's nuclear advancements can be attributed to a lack of comprehension regarding the regime's fundamental nature. As Dr. Joseph pointed out, the Kim regime is a 21st century Nazi Germany, if not worse, considering its 70-year record of abusing its own people.

It is time to acknowledge what has been missed and do what is truly needed to achieve lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula—ending the Kim regime. Failure to alter our path will only prove us to be the fools as described by George Bernard Shaw in his well-known quote: "Only fools repeat the same things over and over, expecting to obtain different results."