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Engaging North Korea: Time For More Public Discussion And A Bipartisan Approach

By Maureen S. Steinbruner

August 29, 2003

With the start of an international dialogue over the issues posed by North Korea – however rocky – it is an appropriate time to begin thinking about how to achieve bipartisan agreement about addressing this critical issue.

Members of Congress have had too few opportunities to engage actively on North Korea policy, in part because the North Koreans have not been inclined to seek much contact outside the Executive Branch, and in part because the Executive Branch has not sought to encourage such contact. Bush administration officials dealing with the extremely difficult and volatile problem of North Korea, like their predecessors in the Clinton administration, understandably have held the details of interaction with and about North Korea very close to the vest.

As a result, with some exceptions, neither Senate nor House members have been able to develop much direct involvement with the North Korea issue.

Over recent months, however, Republican Richard Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, ranking member on the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Sub-committee, have published opinion pieces, signaling that a broader political dialogue is now inevitable. In fact, the Administration should welcome such contributions, even though they may complicate an already delicate process.

At stake here is not the question of congressional prerogatives, per se, but rather the broader principle of democratic foreign policy-making.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, this nation has been forced to confront our vulnerability to significant foreign threats that we do not yet even fully understand much less have comprehensive defenses against. In this situation, many things that must be done to insure our common safety are difficult or impossible to air in public. In spite of this, to act effectively and to sustain any course over the time necessary to achieve difficult but critical goals, we need to be able to agree on the basics of policy. That requires a shared perception of our common interests, and at least reasonable consensus about methods and costs.

It is essential to the maintenance of sustainable policy that a range of elected as well as appointed officials have access to the process and participate in deliberations.

In the case of U.S. North Korea policy, this country faces an incredibly difficult set of trade-offs. Efforts will be made to reach a reasonable outcome, but there is no guarantee of success.

In the end, military force may simply not be an option, the most damaging penalties may be impossible to impose effectively, and permanent total solutions may be impossible to secure. These possibilities should be thoroughly and publicly aired and evaluated, by our elected leaders, not just by specialists.

North Korea may not understand the implications of our public debates, and our public disagreements. There is a risk that the North Koreans might be misled by political differences aired in public. But there is also a risk to ourselves if we do not have this kind of discussion and debate.

If, in the end, the current impasse with North Korea is not resolved effectively, or at least addressed rationally and plausibly, this country could face a round of debilitating recriminations. Even more critically, for any kind of sustainable deal to be struck, the U.S. Congress will need to be on board.

The good news here for the administration is that there are Democrats as well as Republicans who favor a tough approach, and Republicans as well as Democrats who see a need for negotiation. There is an opportunity both to foster debate and also to build a consensus that need not, as so much else in recent American policy formation, elude achievement on strictly ideological or partisan grounds.

Negotiations need to proceed in private settings, but outcomes will ultimately hold only if they are accepted and supported by those in authority. In a democracy, authority belongs to the citizenry, acting through its elected representatives.

It’s time to begin developing a bipartisan policy approach to North Korea that can be understood and accepted by the American people as a whole. 

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