Showing Up in North Korea

Woody Allen famously said that “90 percent of life is just showing up.”  Interestingly, Allen’s advice can be applied to international diplomacy and security as much as anything else.  Ploughshares Fund has been supporting people who have been “showing up” in unusual – yet critical – places.  In fact, I just returned from a trip to North Korea myself. 

Why?  I was invited to tag along and observe a group of nongovernmental experts from the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University who have been interacting with officials from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)  for years now to provide some level of consistent communication and “bridge building” when official dialogue is all but cut off.

The DPRK nuclear program is one of the most challenging proliferation issues that the incoming Obama Administration faces in its security agenda.  And while there is a formal agreement hammered out among six different countries – North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia – that clearly states that the North will relinquish its program and weapons, it will be a years-long process that will undoubtedly encounter a number of bumps in the diplomatic road. 

In fact, the reception we were given in Pyongyang from the Foreign Ministry, a representative of the military, and other governmental representatives was decidedly chilly.  They were not enamored of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Asia tour and pointed out several things she said and did that made them doubt that much would change under our new president.  They reminded us that the fuel and other assistance they were to receive under the current Six Party agreement had not been fully delivered yet, and therefore they may be forced to take “actions.”  They openly discussed their plans to launch a satellite as part of their space program – an action that would undoubtedly be met with strong condemnation by DPRK’s neighbors and the United States.  We left with the feeling that, on top of everything else the brand new president had on his plate, there may soon be a new crisis with North Korea. 

Since the U.S. does not have any formal diplomatic relations with the DPRK, and since until very recently it was still listed on our official list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and sanctioned under our Trading With the Enemy Act, the atmosphere for diplomacy and dialogue is, to say the least, difficult.  Think “Hatfields and McCoys” but with nuclear weapons instead of Winchester rifles. 

So, with direct contact between Pyongyang and Washington so limited, how would anyone here know what the North Koreans are telling us?  The answer is, unfortunately, they wouldn’t. 

This is why, in the absence of official dialogue, or at times when it is sporadic and constrained, other avenues of contact must be found.  John Lewis of Stanford knows this well and has been visiting the DPRK since the late 1980s.   The relationships with DPRK officials that he and others have carefully built and maintained have so far withstood the ebbs and flows of international diplomacy with North Korea.  Lewis and his colleagues sometimes provide the only “window” into North Korean government circles and one of the few means to convey messages and information.  Often called “Track II” diplomacy to indicate its unofficial nature, such efforts are nonetheless often the first line of communication and best ways of sending messages and suggesting ways out of impasses. 

The Obama Administration has outlined a philosophy of diplomatic engagement with the governments of North Korea and Iran, among others, and we welcome this approach.  Based on my trip to North Korea, we may not have the luxury to wait.  In the meantime, Ploughshares Fund has and will continue to foster a valuable resource of knowledge and intellectual talent about the DPRK that the current U.S. government team can rely on for engagement, analysis, wisdom and advice. 

As official U.S. representatives plan to “show up” in meetings with the North once again, Lewis and others will be there to make the introductions.