Page 23 - NKHR Hawaii Conference 2023

KEYNOTE SPEECHES

FORMER AMBASSADOR MORSE H TAN
Dean of Liberty University School of Law
Former Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice

Aloha!
Good to see you all. We are honored to have Chairperson Myong Hae Kim who has
sponsored and put together this Conference in partnership with the East-West Center.
President Vares-Lum is here and Consul General Lee of the Republic of Korea in
Hawaii. It is also great to share the stage with my fellow ambassadors Turner and Lee.
I’m going to start by talking a bit about the security crisis in North Korea, transition into
the North Korean human rights issue and reserve potential solutions and approaches for
the later conversation that we will be having.

North Korea has the fourth largest number of military units of any country in the world
after the US, China and Russia. Of course it’s not the most high-tech weapons—they
have old MiG planes and old tanks and some old weaponry. So when I met with the
South Korean ambassador to the US, he did not seem that concerned about the mass
of military armaments that North Korea has collected over the years. In fact if North
Korea carried out a major military provocation, he said he would actually see it as an
opportunity for South Korea and an opportunity to reunify the peninsula. T is is the f rst
time I’ve heard this from a South Korean of cial. South Korea in turn has increased its
military preparedness and the South Korean ambassador sounded rather conf dent in the
preparedness of South Korea.

While there is much focus on the security crisis related to North Korea, the 70-something
missile launches, the reconnaissance satellite and the many provocations that North Korea
has engaged in, it is important underlying that to understand the overarching goals of
North Korea and fundamental approach of North Korea. North Korea has three primary
goals.

One: to promote positive sentiment in South Korea towards North Korea. T ose of you
who are not familiar with Korea might be surprised to hear that many in the younger and
middle-aged generations have been ef ectively reached with this propaganda.

Number Two: they want to get the US uncommitted from defending South Korea and to
dividing North Korea-South Korea by breaking up the ROK-US Alliance.

NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS HAWAII CONFERENCE 2023 23