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| April 23, 2013 Your Weekly Update from The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center |  |  |  |  Kerry's Soft Touch on North Korea
By Bruce Klingner
 |  | When John Kerry was selected as U.S. Secretary of State, Korea watchers wondered which policy path he'd follow. Would he continue his predecessor Hillary Clinton's role as the backbone of the Obama administration, pushing for a firm policy toward the Kim regime? Or would he maintain his long-held advocacy for negotiations, even if it meant lowering the bar of Pyongyang's compliance?
Secretary Kerry's first trip to Asia provided the answer. He showed greater eagerness to negotiate with Pyongyang than to support allies threatened with attack. Rather than identifying North Korean belligerence as the most likely catalyst for a military clash, Mr. Kerry instead asserted in Seoul that the greatest danger was "for a mistake [that] inadvertently gets out of control." In a Beijing press conference, Mr. Kerry suggested that the U.S. could remove some newly fortified missile defenses in exchange for progress on talks. In doing so, he offered his country's antimissile capability in Asia as a bargaining chip even before North Korea thought of demanding it.
Mr. Kerry's diplomatic approach to the Korean peninsula is based on two faulty premises. First, that North Korea is willing to negotiate away its nuclear weapons. Secondly, that China will alter its own longstanding resistance to pressuring Pyongyang.
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Sequestration may have Washington in knots, but there is no comparable situation in Beijing. The eighth Chinese defense white paper highlights that China’s military is not only substantial and modernizing, but that it will be a growing factor worldwide.
| | Asia: Kerry's Missing
Puzzle Piece
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Secretary John Kerry has called the proposed State Department budget “an illustration of our values and priorities.” It’s not clear from his testimony before the House Foreign Relations Committee, though, that one of those priorities is America’s commitment to its allies and interests in Asia.
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Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. | |
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