Ahead of Trump’s second summit with Kim Jong-Un Asia/Global Affairs expert Dr. Parag Khanna talks about what the summit means for the U.S. (and broader Asia) and if North korea’s nuclear shield can ever be dismantled.
Khanna has long argued that North Korea has become a “commercial colony” of China, South Korea, and Russia — all of which have significant economic interests in the Hermit Kingdom from low-cost manufacturing to precious minerals.
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Meanwhile -- as Khanna explained in this interview with Bloomberg during the first summit -- there is a three-way dynamic between the issue of ending the Korean War, De-nuclearizing North Korea, and reunifying the Korean Peninsula. Further, he has predicted that reunification will be a multi-stage process during which NK maintains autonomy and Pyongyang becomes the administrative center for the collective efforts to rehabilitate its economy.
Significantly, he says that North Korea will keep its nuclear shield while branding it as a pan-Korean nuclear shield.
According to Khanna:
- There are fundamental strategic questions about the implications of Korean peace for the US military positioning in Asia.
- With one less major conflict scenario in the region, American forces stationed in Korea will need to withdraw further from this key theater.
- At the same time, the US justification for remaining in Japan will also diminish commensurately.
- Asians will gain greater confidence that they can resolve their own disputes.
More About Parag:
He's the founder and managing partner of FutureMap -- a strategic advisory firm -- and an internationally bestselling author. He has been an advisor to the U.S. National Intelligence Global Trends 2030 program. During 2007, he served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a senior geo-political advisor to the United States Special Operations Forces. He was a Global Governance Fellow at the Brookings Institutions and a Research Associate at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. He holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and author of the forthcoming book The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019).
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