Trump's key figure advises against overinterpretation of Pyongyang’s actions

Alex Nelson Wong, a key figure named deputy national security advisor in the upcoming Trump administration, has recently been at the center of attention due to a previous editorial, written based on his experiences at the negotiating table with North Korea, saying that the regime does not have consistency behind its actions, which Wong describes is Pyongyang’s secret. The new deputy national security adviser engaged in two summit talks between Washington and Pyongyang back in 2018. As of now, he is the only one who has been confirmed to be joining the forthcoming government among those who handled North Korean nuclear issues under the first Trump administration.

In an editorial published on security-specific platform RealClearDefense in April 2021 right after Joe Biden took office, Wong described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as an extremely indecisive person. He wrote, “Many say Kim is merely playing the world—keeping us off balance with contradictory actions,” adding that they are not an intended outcome and Kim seemingly has a severely hard time making decisions.

Given his time negotiating with Pyongyang, he recalled that there seemed to be no one at the helm to handle the regime's diplomatic strategies, commenting, “With one person in control, it’s tempting to assume North Korea’s national security decision-making must be unified and disciplined,” which he thought was not the case. He argued that the regime only relies on rhetorical artifice, but with no strategy, saying that Washington should not overinterpret its actions and remarks.

In the meantime, he proposed that the U.S. government build channels through which it can interact directly with Kim’s inner circle, even going over North Korean diplomats and officials. He diagnosed that the regime and party organizations have been so politically competitive that they rarely cooperate but end up paralyzed, making it hard to negotiate with the regime’s diplomatic authorities.


이지윤 기자 asap@donga.com