Pompeo hits Biden’s ‘dangerous moves’ on North Korea

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Saturday that President Biden is making “dangerous moves” on North Korea and  his lack of a coherent response to Pyongyang’s provocations jeopardizes American credibility with allies who want “leadership from the United States.”

“I’m concerned that the United States is returning to an Obama-era policy of ’Strategic Patience 2.0,’” Mr. Pompeo told an audience of dignitaries from South Korea and Japan at a virtual gathering that included remarks from other former high-level U.S. diplomats and lawmakers.

Mr. Pompeo referred to years of waffling by the Bush and Obama administrations before an escalation of sanctions and other pressure on Pyongyang led to historic denuclearization summits between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The summits ultimately fell short of delivering an agreement for North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weapons arsenal. U.S.-North Korean talks have been stalled for more than two years, but Mr. Pompeo said the Biden administration is essentially handing a victory to Pyongyang.

“Choosing to firmly pursue neither pressure nor diplomacy will give Chairman Kim and his regime more opportunity to build out its arsenal,” said the former secretary of state, pointing to unsettling indications of movement at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear research facility.

“If the Biden administration continues dithering, it will only give the regime more time to undermine sanctions,” Mr. Pompeo said about Pyongyang’s clandestine development of nuclear weapons in violation of decades of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

He pointed to North Korea’s recent claims to have successfully tested long-range cruise missiles. Afterward, eye-opening images purportedly showed the North Korean launch of short-range ballistic missiles from a rail car.

“They are testing the Biden administration on how it will respond,” Mr. Pompeo said.

The administration has remained largely silent in the face of the provocations, which have rattled U.S. allies South Korea and Japan. Mr. Biden has maintained sanctions against Pyongyang but has not added to them. The administration has gone forward with U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises, which have triggered threats of escalation from the Kim regime.

Sung Kim, the administration’s new special representative for North Korea, has expressed hope for a resumption of talks with the regime. He said during a Sept. 13 meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Tokyo that “we hope [North Korea] will respond positively to our multiple offers to meet without preconditions.”

Analysts say the approach is tantamount to a reboot of the “strategic patience” policy during the final years of the George W. Bush administration and throughout the Obama era. The approach avoids direct escalation, continues sanctions and makes offers to hold “working level” dialogue without rewarding the regime with major diplomatic overtures.

The Trump administration engaged in an alternative approach of ramping up “maximum pressure” before spearheading top-level diplomacy with Mr. Kim. Mr. Pompeo, who was integral to that approach — first as CIA director and then as secretary of state — lashed out Saturday at the Biden administration’s posture. “A strategy of ’Strategic Patience 2.0’ will weaken our credibility with allies and partners throughout the world who want to see leadership from the United States,” he said. “It says North Korea isn’t a priority for us.”

Pushing for freedom

The former secretary of state made the remarks at the inaugural event of “Think Tank 2022,” an initiative sponsored by The Washington Times Foundation and the Universal Peace Federation, a global nongovernmental organization that operates in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

UPF co-founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon participated in an event officially launching “Think Tank 2022” in May. Mrs. Moon, the widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is the leader of the Unification movement that grew from the Unification Church the Rev. Moon founded in 1954 — a year after the war between North and South Korea was frozen by a U.S.-backed armistice. She and her late husband devoted their lives to the reunification of the Korean Peninsula and to the promotion of world peace. They founded The Washington Times in 1982.

Mr. Pompeo, who praised the work of Mrs. Moon during Saturday’s event, focused a portion of his remarks on the virtues of “religious freedom.” He called it “the most fundamental of all human rights” and asserted that its promotion is “crucial to peace in Northeast Asia.”  

In a roughly 30-minute speech, he reflected on his efforts to promote religious freedom as secretary of state. He noted that it was the nation’s “first secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote: ’Almighty God has created the mind free. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry, or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.’”

“When people are free to talk about the most consequential ideas, societies can find the best way forward,” Mr. Pompeo said. “When people see their neighbors worshipping peacefully, they gain tolerance for different viewpoints. When churches, mosques and synagogues are free to engage in their neighborhoods, bonds of community are made stronger.”

He emphasized the absence of religious freedom in North Korea and said 50,000 to 70,000 people are in prison in North Korea “just for being Christians.”

Mr. Pompeo also cited the contrast between American respect for religious freedom and the “Chinese Communist Party’s soul-crushing deprivations.”

“You know what I mean,” he said. “We see brutal treatment of Falun Gong practitioners and Tibetan Buddhists. We read of churches forced to replace displays of the Ten Commandments with quotations from General Secretary Xi. We read reports of party officials recruiting children to become informants against their churchgoing parents. And, of course, we all know the truth about the sickening genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

“[The Chinese Communist Party] cannot abide the idea that the Chinese people would find their identity or their meaning in life in God,” the former secretary of state said. “Party leaders believe the party alone should command the loyalties of the human heart. But little do they know that their suppression of faith is bound to backfire. Crippling religious freedom only creates more curiosity about faith and distrust of the regime.”

Growing Chinese threat

U.S.-Chinese tensions have risen since the Trump-era push to rally regional democracies to counter Beijing’s rise as an autocratic global power.

Mr. Pompeo broadly praised the Biden administration for embracing aspects of that effort in recent months. Most notably, Mr. Biden has picked up where Mr. Trump left off in promoting the Quad alignment of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia, the most powerful democracies of the Indo-Pacific.

The president is slated to hold the first in-person summit of leaders from the Quad countries on Friday at the White House.

Mr. Pompeo suggested that Washington should be more focused on threats posed by China, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. “Make no mistake: China is a destabilizing force for this region,” he said. Beijing is becoming “more aggressive” toward Taiwan and has been “constructing approximately 250 new nuclear missile silos.”

“What kind of message does that send to the region?” asked Mr. Pompeo, who said the Biden administration has “made no effort to address Chinese nuclear weapons.”

He said China also “continues to turn a blind eye to North Korea’s sanctions evasion,” which “undermines the maximum pressure campaign that was successful in helping Chairman Kim come to the negotiating table.”

Organizers have described “Think Tank 2022” as a “global network of experts in all sectors and fields” that will work to encourage international efforts to promote peace around the North Korea issue. During Saturday’s event, Mr. Pompeo and other former U.S. officials emphasized the depth of U.S. support for South Korea, Japan and other allies in the region.

Events slated for the coming months are expected to feature other high-level dignitaries. In May, the initiative’s launch featured David Beasley, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian organization.

Away from Mr. Pompeo’s prepared remarks, Saturday’s event featured panel discussions in which former high-level U.S., South Korean and Japanese diplomats exchanged views with the former secretary of state.

Abe Nobuyasu, a former U.N. undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, was among the dignitaries on the Japanese panel. Former South Korean Minister of Unification Kim Yeon-chul and longtime South Korean diplomat Ho-Jin Lee were among the dignitaries on the South Korean panel.

The American panel featured former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former congressman Dan Burton; Christopher Hill, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; and former CIA official and longtime U.S. diplomatic adviser Joseph DeTrani.