North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s decision to sit down with the U. S. was fueled by his regime\u2019s view that it made significant achievements in its nuclear weapons program and would no longer be a \u201csupplicant\u201d in talks, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said.<\/b>
\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s decision to sit down with the U. S. was fueled by his regime\u2019s view that it made significant achievements in its nuclear weapons program and would no longer be a \u201csupplicant\u201d in talks, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said.
Clapper said it may not matter whether North Korea actually has the technology to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead that can successfully hit a U. S. target. That\u2019s less important to the regime than the psychological boost it received from demonstrating its prowess in testing ICBMs and more powerful nuclear bombs.
\u201cThey achieved what they think they need to achieve a deterrent,\u201d Clapper, a Barack Obama appointee and frequent Trump critic, told Bloomberg reporters and editors in Washington on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not like what we would do in terms of testing and validating a weapons system.\u201d
But, he added, \u201cwhatever it is, they now are confident enough so that they can go to the negotiating table and not show up as a supplicant, which has always been the case.\u201d
Clapper, who visited North Korea for talks while serving in the Obama administration, said he supports Trump\u2019s decision to meet face-to-face with Kim in Singapore next week. Yet he called the summit a \u201chuge concession\u201d to the regime in its effort to seek legitimacy.
He said he argued during the Obama administration for the two nations to open offices known as \u201cinterest sections\u201d in each others\u2019 capitals to facilitate communication and address crisis situations. Such a channel proved useful in U. S.-Cuban ties without requiring each country to have formal diplomatic relations, he added.
The Singapore summit on June 12 will be the first time the leaders of the U. S. and North Korea have met, more than six decades after an armistice ending hostilities in the Korean war went into effect. While neither side has publicly defined what might be achieved at the historic summit, Clapper said progress toward a formal peace agreement would help ease tensions.
From their side of the border, North Korean officials and military chiefs still see \u201ca very formidable, overwhelming conventional force in the form of the Republic of Korea Army bolstered by the United States, poised on a hair trigger and ready to invade to overthrow the regime,\u201d Clapper said. \u201cThat\u2019s the portrayal, their image.\u201d Limits on Bombers
But he also warned that the administration\u2019s goal of \u201ctotal denuclearization\u201d could backfire on the U. S. if Pyongyang demands that definition include deployments or flights of bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles. Agreeing to that would erode the \u201cnuclear umbrella\u201d the U. S. uses to help guarantee security for both South Korea and Japan, a move that would thrill North Korea\u2019s allies in Beijing, he added.
\u201cDenuclearization could apply two ways,\u201d Clapper said. \u201cMeaning, no B-1s, B-2, B-52s on the peninsula or within operational proximity to the peninsula.\u201d It would be \u201cvery hard\u201d for the U. S. to agree to give up that flexibility, Clapper said.
The nuclear missile threat from Pyongyang is growing, but it isn\u2019t yet imminent, General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in January.
North Korea has yet to demonstrate four essential capabilities, including an ability to maneuver in space, a guidance system and re-entry vehicle housing for a nuclear warhead, Selva said. Nor had North Korea yet demonstrated \u201ctargeting technologies,\u201d Selva said before Kim\u2019s regime froze its missile testing. \u2018Really Acrimonious\u2019
Clapper has the rare experience among top U. S. officials, along with current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, of having visited Pyongyang for a hostage negotiation.
Obama dispatched Clapper to the North Korean capital in late 2014 to secure the freedom of two American detainees. On that trip, Clapper met with Kim Yong Chol, the top regime aide who met with Trump in Washington last week. As part of his trip, Clapper said he told Kim Yong Chol that the U. S. sought denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and that the offer was rejected.
\u201cThe exchange I had with him was really, really acrimonious,\u201d said Clapper, who had a more-than-five-decade career in the military and intelligence community. By the end of the trip, Clapper said his delegation was told that North Korea could no longer guarantee their safety in the country. They left later that day as soon as the two Americans were freed. Trump\u2019s Accusations
Clapper, whose \u201cFacts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence,\u201d was published last month, helped write an intelligence community report in January 2017 saying Russia meddled in the presidential election in order to help Trump win. The report came out two weeks before Trump took office in January 2017. The president has singled out Clapper in recent months as a \u201cliar.\u201d
\u201cClapper is a lying machine who now works for Fake News CNN,\u201d the president wrote on Twitter on April 28.
While he agreed with Trump\u2019s decision on the Singapore summit, Clapper said the president\u2019s decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal leaves it in a more difficult situation: dealing with a state sponsor of terrorism which could again pursue nuclear weapons. He said he backed the accord three years ago even though it had weaknesses including \u201csunset clauses\u201d which would eventually allow Iran to restart uranium enrichment.
The U. S. has a \u201cwhole lot less leverage\u201d over Iran now that it has left the nuclear accord, he said.<\/p>\n