North Korea envoy tapped as next ambassador to Seoul
President Barack Obama announced on late Friday afternoon his intention to nominate Sung Kim , the administration's special envoy to the Six Party Talks, as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea. However, Kim wasn't the administration's first choice.
Originally, the administration had proposed sending Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joe Donovan as ambassador to Seoul, two administration officials confirmed. But the South Korean government rejected Donovan because they wanted an envoy with a higher political profile, or at least someone who they believed had personal access to the highest levels of the Obama administration.
Kim, who has been a key player in the effort to increase international pressure on North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, would replace outgoing U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens if confirmed. The administration plans to name Clifford Hart , a China-Taiwan specialist now working as a top Asia advisor for the Navy, as Kim's replacement as special envoy.
The South Koreans have long sought a high-level political appointee rather than a senior Foreign Service officer, as has been the tradition, for a U.S. ambassador there. They believe such a step would signal their importance to Washington, and tie the nation more closely to the administration. Other Asian powers, like Japan, have traditionally received a distinguished or at least politically well-connected envoy.
"The Koreans for a long time wanted the Japan template, which is a high-level appointee like former House Speaker Tom Foley , or if not a Foley, a Schieffer -Roos, model, which is someone who is not as well-known but who is very close to the president," said former NSC Senior Director for Asia Victor Cha , now a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Tom Schieffer was a very close personal friend of President George W. Bush . Current U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos was a top Obama campaign bundler and an early supporter of the president.
The Koreans ultimately accepted Kim because he would be symbolically important as the first Korean-American to become U.S. ambassador to Seoul, and because he is well-known and well-respected in the region, Cha said.
"Sung is a very different sort of candidate, because he is the first Korean-American ambassador. The Koreans also like the fact that he worked in two administrations on the North Korean issue and is not seen as partisan," he said.
North Korea Bush Nuclear Weapons - News
He reminded them that under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, which was passed in response to the North Korean nuclear test in 2009, its vessels are to be inspected if “reasonable grounds” exist to suspect that weapons are being exported
Kim, who has been a key player in the effort to increase international pressure on North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, would replace outgoing US Ambassador Kathleen Stephens if confirmed. The administration plans to name Clifford Hart,
North Korea has flouted UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit it from carrying out ballistic missile or nuclear weapons tests (RIA Novosti, June 24). Meanwhile, the South Korean Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Pyongyang's commitment to
Barack Obama has extended for a year provisions of an executive order issued by former President George W. Bush freezing the assets of North Korean entities and officials involved in North Korea's program to produce weapons-grade nuclear material.
So his priority is to reduce the destabilizing force of weapons of mass destruction, particularly long-range nuclear missiles. The world saw the threat they pose in 1998, when a missile being tested by North Korea flew over Japan and set off an
Tactical Nuclear Weapons and Korea - Center for Arms Control and ...
By Duyeon Kim [ contact information ]
TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS & KOREA:
A TEMPORARY OR PERENNIAL DEBATE?
June 2011
The buzz word is increasingly “tactical nuclear weapons” whenever North Korea unleashes provocations.
It buzzed again earlier this year when President Obama’s Weapons of Mass Destruction policy coordinator Gary Samore said that Washington would reintroduce U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea upon Seoul’s request. Citing his personal views in response to a Korean JoongAng Ilbo journalist’s question on the sidelines of an event at Tufts University in February, Samore’s comment rang alarm bells in the U.S. arms control community and raised eyebrows for those in South Korea.
It was the first time a senior U.S. official mentioned the possibility of redeploying tactical nuclear weapons amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula after North Korea sank the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March and November 2010, respectively.
The White House immediately backpedaled on Samore’s remarks, reassuring the U.S. public and the world that Washington has no plans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons nor are they necessary to defend South Korea. On June 20, 2010, the Commander of U.S. forces in Korea General Walter Sharp also stressed there is no need to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons.
In South Korea, Pyongyang’s nuclear developments continue to ignite calls for the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons among a small number of conservative legislators and academics, most recently reiterated by Chung Mong Joon, a conservative Korean politician at a nuclear policy conference in Seoul on June 13, 2011.
North Korea’s increasing nuclear capability has essentially lifted the taboo in South Korean public discussions about nuclear weapons after they were withdrawn from the South in 1991.
While there is no strong public constituency in support of the return of nuclear weapons, there are some concerns that a continued stalemate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons and facilities could lead to stronger public support for this option.
History: U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Korea
The United States deployed nuclear weapons to South Korea in 1958 as part of Eisenhower’s strategy of “massive retaliation,” and built up its stockpiles there for decades. At its height the deployment is believed to have been as high as 950 warheads.
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