Page 111 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

Concessions from North Korea through coercive diplomacy
are means through which an effective diplomatic approach
occurred to a limited extent, and it is the only sort of approach
that has a realistic chance for breakthroughs to occur moving
forward. It was no accident that Admiral Harry Harris, the
four-star admiral of the U.S. Pacific Command, was inserted
into the ambassadorship to South Korea instead of the
Australian ambassadorship. Making Stephen Biegun both
the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Negotiations even
as he served as Deputy Secretary of State sent another strong
message of the importance that the Trump administration
placed on addressing the North Korean crises.

The successes of the past Trump administration reinforce the
merits of a robust approach to the Kim Jong-Un regime. It
disrupted the usual pattern of North Korean saber-rattling
brinkmanship. Typically, the totalitarian dictatorship there
would: 1) precipitate a crisis; 2) draw in who they want to
the negotiating table; 3) negotiate benefits for the regime; 4)
swallow these benefits; and then 5) break the agreement, after
which they restart the cycle. When President Trump escalated
exchanges above the North Korean regime, it disrupted the
usual pattern.

When North Korea threatened to shoot down any plane that
entered or came near its airspace, the U.S. sent F-35 fighter
jets screaming along the Korean Peninsula, daring North
Korea to follow through on its threat. North Korea was unable
to sustain its threat given its less advanced air defenses.

The remaining batteries of the Terminal High Altitude

110 Section II : Human Rights, Abductees, Forced Repatriation of Refugees and the Regional Implications