OPINION:
Last week, Ji Seong-ho stood proud in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, raising his crutches in triumph, a symbol of his hard-earned freedom and victory over the tyrannical regime that had oppressed, starved and tortured him.
The image of Mr. Ji standing in the gallery in front of America, and the long, bipartisan standing ovation that he received, has become the lasting image of President Trump’s first State of the Union Address. “Seong-ho’s story is a testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom,” the president said, highlighting once again the brutality of the North Korean regime — but remembering that there is still hope for those who suffer under Kim Jong-un.
Mr. Trump’s decision to focus the North Korea section of his speech not on fire and fury, but on the suffering of people like Mr. Ji and the parents of American student Otto Warmbier, who were also in attendance, was not only heartwarming to watch, but is a smart strategy for dealing with the belligerent North Korean regime.
Insulting North Korea or its leader, Kim Jong-un, only serves to bolster his domestic support, giving the North Koreans proof that the Americans are, indeed, out to get them. These insults may seem harmless, but they actually play right into Kim’s hands, giving him propaganda fodder for weeks afterward. In contrast, nothing has riled up North Korean leadership more than when the United Nations or other international groups have pointed out their horrific treatment of their own people, and the regime’s inability to provide even basic services in the poverty-stricken country.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has centered remarks about North Korea on human rights. At his speech to the South Korean National Assembly last year, the president spent a great deal of his time describing in detail the crimes the North Korean regime has committed both against its own people and against others, like Otto, from around the world. Despite some offhand remarks, Mr. Trump and his advisers understand the difference between the North Korean regime and the people who suffer under it.
This distinction will be key as rumors of plans for a so-called “bloody nose” strike against North Korean nuclear facilities continue to circulate in Washington. North Korea’s leader will not take a strike from the United States sitting down. Any preventative strike by the United States will immediately endanger tens of millions of South Koreans, Japanese, as well as the American civilian and military personnel living on the peninsula in the direct line of fire from a North Korean retaliation.
We have faced the terrifying prospect of American enemies developing nuclear weapons before. In 1949, when the Soviet Union first began testing nuclear devices, and in 1964, when China joined the nuclear club, those in leadership in the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon had serious conversations about how to protect the American people and our allies. But no one in leadership seriously advocated a preventative strike against these nuclearizing powers — mainly because the potential costs of a retaliation were too horrific to even consider.
Instead, Mr. Trump needs to continue with the strategy he employed both in Seoul and in the State of the Union — shedding light on the brutality of the North Korean regime, and providing support and funding for those, like Mr. Ji, who work to get information about these abuses back into North Korea, helping ordinary people there understand that despite all they have suffered, there is hope.
To be sure, economic sanctions need to be enforced and strengthened where necessary, but always with an extended hand in support of a peaceful solution for a denuclearized Korean peninsula. Until that day comes, the United States must adopt a containment strategy and strong deterrent posture against North Korea similar to the Cold War, which will eventually produce the same result as when the Berlin Wall fell.
As Mr. Trump said himself, speaking of the work Mr. Ji continues to do to help his fellow North Koreans, “Today he lives in Seoul, where he rescues other defectors, and broadcasts into North Korea what the regime fears the most — the truth.” I hope the president takes these words to heart, and focuses on hitting Kim Jong-un not with missiles, but with the most American of values — truth and freedom.
• Donald Manzullo, a former Republican U.S. representative from Illinois, is president and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America.
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