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Former Unification Ministers Jeong Se-hyun, left, and Lee Jong-seok, right, with Joseph Yun on screen, a former U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, participate in a session of the International Symposium on Sustainable Peace on the Korean Peninsula, at Yonsei University in Seoul, Thursday. The five-session event was co-hosted by the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) and the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies. / Courtesy of Korean Culture and Information Service

By Kang Seung-woo

Following the leadership change in the United States this coming January, there is a consensus that it will take several months before the Joe Biden administration develops its policy toward North Korea, during which Pyongyang is expected to dust off the old playbook of provocations to capture the new American president's attention.

To stop the historically vicious cycle that has happened in the first year of the last few U.S. governments, Joseph Yun, a former U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, advised the incoming U.S. administration to recognize the Singapore joint statement, signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018 following their first summit.

The statement highlights that the two sides would make joint efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, while the North would commit to complete denuclearization of the peninsula.

"What the Biden team has to do as soon as possible ― hopefully even before the inauguration day, Jan. 20 ― is to send a message to North Korea," Yun said remotely during a session of the International Symposium on Sustainable Peace on the Korean Peninsula, co-hosted by the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) and the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies.

"If they cannot do it before Jan. 20, then very soon afterward, and that message ideally should contain two scenarios," he said. "The first is that the Biden administration acknowledges and recognizes the Singapore joint statement between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. This is the highest-level statement by two leaders of the two countries, and really if you look at the statement, there is nothing bad about it. It calls on North Korea to completely denuclearize; it calls on North Korea and the U.S. to move to a better relationship; it calls on North Korea and the U.S. to walk toward a peace agreement and peace regime."

He added, "So I really don't see why the Biden administration should not acknowledge or recognize that and if they recognize it, I think that would be the first step toward opening the door to negotiations."

Yun, a Korean American diplomat who worked for the administrations of both Barack Obama and Trump, also said Biden's recognition would pave the way for the North Korean regime to also follow its past highest-level statements with South Korea and the U.S., such as the Panmunjeom Declaration with President Moon Jae-in in 2018 and one in 2000 between former President Bill Clinton and Cho Myong-rok, then-vice chairman of the North's National Defense Commission.

"These joint statements are all meaningful because they include language on denuclearization and so I think that would be acceptable to the Biden administration, and South Korea as well as Washington should press the Biden administration to accept the Singapore joint statement and I think that can be done. I am optimistic," he said.