Follow us on social

Shutterstock_780205474-scaled

The coronavirus crisis should convince Washington to abandon ‘maximum pressure’ against North Korea

This crisis is exposing just how senseless Washington’s approach to Pyongyang has been for the last seventy years, and why it must change as soon as possible.

Analysis | Asia-Pacific

Many people are rightfully outraged that the United States just imposed fresh sanctions on Iran during a global pandemic, as the U.S.-led sanctions regime is already causing ordinary Iranians to suffer, and the coronavirus crisis only puts them more at risk. But amidst demands to lift sanctions on Iran, it’s important to remember that another country is also at grave risk because of U.S. militarism and “maximum pressure”: North Korea.

Although North Korea has not internationally reported any cases of COVID-19, experts agree that the virus has likely begun to spread there. With more than 88,000 confirmed cases in China and South Korea combined, North Korea is highly susceptible to a coronavirus outbreak. And an outbreak in North Korea has the potential to be catastrophic given the country’s socioeconomic conditions and already debilitated health care system due to being one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world.

As in Iran and Venezuela, the U.S.-led global sanctions regime against North Korea has seriously undermined the country’s health care system, economic development, and the ability of humanitarian workers to deliver life-saving aid. Forty percent of North Korea’s population — 11 million people — lack “sufficient nutritious food, clean drinking water or access to basic services like health and sanitation,” according to a 2019 U.N. report. In 2018 alone, an estimated 3,968 civilians — mostly women and children — died from sanctions-related delays and funding shortfalls to U.N. humanitarian programs. In this current crisis, many more North Koreans are certain to suffer.

Despite the State Department’s recent assurances to “expeditiously facilitate” exemption requests, in practice, most humanitarian workers will be unable to provide timely assistance as international financial institutions generally refuse to facilitate the transfer of funds in North Korea needed to cover medical and operating expenses. Furthermore, it has been extremely difficult for international public health officials and humanitarian workers to assess and respond to the coronavirus’s impact in North Korea.

This isn't an accident. It’s the result of years of deliberate and flawed policymaking. In the decades since American officials arbitrarily divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel, our posture toward North Korea has been almost entirely based on militarism, sanctions, and isolation. Consider the Korean War: the conflict turns 70 this year and, true to what textbooks call America’s “forgotten war,” remains unresolved as it concluded not with a formal peace agreement but a temporary armistice. The continued state of war may seem like a technicality for most Americans, but it’s responsible for keeping tens of thousands of families divided, prohibiting inter-Korean cultural and economic exchange, and threatening millions in the region with renewed military conflict.

While the Trump administration’s behavior toward North Korea has been particularly erratic — lurching from threats of nuclear war to love letters — it’s not fundamentally different from prior administrations. The Obama administration’s “strategic patience” was based on the same flawed theory that North Korea could be punished and isolated into compliance with maximalist demands. North Korea policy under the Bush administration was largely driven by hardliners like Vice President Dick Cheney and noted war enthusiast John Bolton, both of whom preferred a strategy of regime change. Even the Clinton administration’s most modest diplomatic efforts were badly undermined by congressional opposition, and the administration initially came very close to bombing North Korea.

The global health crisis we now face underscores that such measures don’t just punish North Korea, they punish us all. Ignoring and isolating North Korea hasn’t led to any progress on denuclearization or human rights. It has only ensured that millions of people remain critically vulnerable to a global pandemic, and that the international community remains divided at a time when cooperation, solidarity, and our common humanity are essential to confronting a massive threat that endangers us all.

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing into sharp relief a devastating policy reality: sanctions kill.

Ultimately, the coronavirus crisis demonstrates that just about every assumption undergirding the U.S. national security apparatus is at best misguided and at worst false. Washington has carefully and meticulously constructed a military machine that’s the most powerful and destructive in the world, stationed troops and bases across the globe, and continued to maintain an war paradigm with seemingly no end in sight.

But none of this is of any use right now. There’s an imminent threat to all of our security, and we can’t bomb it, invade it, or occupy it. It’s not a military challenge and there’s no military cure.

U.S-North Korea relations may be just one aspect of failed U.S. national security policy, but it’s a crucial feature of both the problem and solution. The unresolved Korean War helped usher in the modern era of endless war and exponentially growing military budgets that continues to destabilize entire countries and regions. The decades-long bipartisan failure to account for such legacies of war-making and to prioritize diplomacy and cooperation to confront shared challenges has left us ill-prepared and insecure to deal with the current moment.

This is the crux of the question we are now faced with: Are we capable of adjusting our notion of what “security” means moving forward from this crisis? To repeat the same old playbook — implementing more sanctions, refusing to resolve the war, ignoring and isolating North Korea — could put millions of lives in jeopardy. Instead, let’s move to a people-centered human security paradigm that is guided by a vision of peace, international cooperation, and an ethics of care.


Photo credit: Yeongsik Im / Shutterstock.com
Analysis | Asia-Pacific
Trump should take the victory in Canada and move on
Top photo credit: Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney (Yan Parisien; bella1105 via shutterstock)

Trump should take the victory in Canada and move on

North America

Just days after replacing Justin Trudeau and becoming Canada’s 24th prime minister, Mark Carney has advised Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament. Canadians will now head to the polls on April 28 for a long awaited and highly anticipated federal election.

Trudeau had announced his intention to resign as prime minister and Liberal Party leader on January 6, having served more than nine years as Canada’s head of government. Opinion polling had shown an increasingly sizable lead for the rival Conservative Party over the preceding 18 months, with about 25 percentage points separating the two parties by the time Trudeau announced he was stepping down.

keep readingShow less
Alexander Vindman's new book is a folly: of history, and the truth
Top photo credit: Alexander Vindman (Philip Yabut/Shutterstock) and the cover of his new book (publisher, PublicAffairs)

Alexander Vindman's new book is a folly: of history, and the truth

Europe

Alexander Vindman’s recent book, “The Folly of Realism,”throws down the gauntlet, as the name suggests, at the “realists” he thinks were responsible for failing to deter Russia and seize opportunities for defense cooperation with Ukraine.

According to Vindman, the former National Security Council official who testified against President Trump during his impeachment trial in 2019, this “realist” behavior incentivized Moscow’s continued imperialist predations, culminating in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

keep readingShow less
arrest free speech
Top photo credit: Spaxiax/Shutterstock

Does Vance’s free speech defense in Munich not apply here?

Global Crises

At the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned Europe not to back away from one of the West’s most basic democratic values: free speech.

“In Washington there is a new sheriff in town," he said, "and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.”

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.