The preceding South Korean and U.S. administrations differed on a set of issues, including their assessment of North Korea’s intentions behind its nuclear program and their characterization of its missile provocation, according to a former U.S. official’s memoir published Tuesday.
In the book, titled, “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House,” H.R. McMaster, who served as national security advisor from 2017-2018, revealed a series of anecdotes where the administrations of former Presidents Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump diverged on North Korea and other issues.
McMaster touched on what happened during Moon’s visit to Washington for a summit with Trump in June 2017, noting that staying aligned with the Moon government would require a “sustained” effort.
Following the summit press conference, Moon and then Vice President Mike Pence met each other and disagreed on why Pyongyang has been doggedly pursuing nuclear arms.
“Moon said that, just like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Khadafi, Kim believed that he needed nuclear weapons for defense,” McMaster wrote.
“Pence asked Moon, ‘Why does Kim Jong-un need nukes when he has conventional artillery in range of Seoul? We have to consider the possibility that Kim wants the weapons for offensive purposes,'” he added.
That difference of opinion about what drove the North Korean leader was bound to create tension and disagreement, the former White House official recalled.
In the process of agreeing on a joint summit statement, he said Seoul and Washington struggled to bridge their differences.
“Our South Korean counterparts insisted on language that held out the prospect of negotiation with North Korea at some point and an acknowledgement 한국을 that Seoul would take the lead role in any effort to talk with the North Korean regime,” he said.
“In turn, Pottinger, Hooker and I insisted on language emphasizing sanctions enforcement as essential for convincing Kim Jong-un that denuclearization was in his best interest.”
He was referring to Matthew Pottinger and Allison Hooker who formerly served as principal deputy national security advisor and senior director for Asia, respectively.
He also mentioned difference between himself and then South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, over how to characterize North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 4, 2017.
“(Chung) told me that the Moon government was not ready to call the missile an ICBM,” he said. “I responded, ‘Eui-yong, just because you don’t call it an ICBM doesn’t mean it’s not an ICBM.'”
With Moon deeply committed to inter-Korean rapprochement, his administration appeared cautious about the characterization of a North Korean ICBM launch apparently on concern that a public accusation of North Korea could hurt diplomacy with Pyongyang.