On Friday, during a crucial time for the United States-South Korea relationship, President Joe Biden will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to discuss shared priorities for our two nations. This summit presents an important opportunity to make bilateral progress, and I am hopeful that both Democrats and Republicans are united in prioritizing the challenges facing South Korea. However, the Biden administration’s actions must go beyond rhetoric in supporting our key ally and securing progress on relations with North Korea.
To ensure a productive meeting on shared U.S.-South Korea priorities, Biden must emphasize to Moon our nations’ shared commitment to counter threats from North Korea, promote human rights on the world stage, and strengthen our partnership with key allies for future generations.
The Biden administration must demonstrate its unwavering commitment to our allies and reassure them that it will not offer unwarranted concessions to our adversaries. After announcing the completion of its policy review on Korea, the Biden administration named one of its top objectives as the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This new phrasing was put forth by the Biden administration even though South Korea possesses no nuclear weapons. A stronger and clearer goal would be to attain the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.
