South Koreans watch a news broadcast of a North Korean Musudan midrange ballistic missile launch in October. A former U.S. officials called for President-elect Trump to use his negotiating skills to solve the North Korea nuclear issue. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN/EPA
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A former U.S. official who met with North Korean diplomats in Geneva has a message for President-elect Donald Trump: Talks, and not sanctions, should come first when resolving the North Korea nuclear issue.
Joel Wit, editor of 38 North, a Johns Hopkins website dedicated to North Korea issues, made the suggestion in an article in The Atlantic after a recent meeting with North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations and Pyongyang's director general for North American affairs at the foreign ministry.
The article Wit co-wrote with Richard Sokolsky, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, stated North Korea might need to be addressed soon.
"Donald Trump could have an opportunity early in his presidency, if he follows his instincts instead of all the wrong advice he is likely to get on how to deal with North Korea, to prove his Promethean negotiating skills on one of the most serious national-security challenges the United States will confront over the next four years," the article reads.
Trump has had little to say about North Korea but his remarks have ranged from describing Kim Jong Un as a "maniac" to expressing some interest in meeting with Kim.
Advisors close to Trump have also said the future administration could opt for a wide range of North Korea policy, from adopting tougher sanctions to even initiating dialogue with Kim Jong Un over a "hamburger meal."
Wit and Sokolsky called for a fresh start while criticizing U.S. North Korea policy for veering "into a ditch under the Obama administration."
"President Trump and his advisers will hopefully be smart enough to follow the first law of holes: Stop digging," the authors write.
The call for a new approach to North Korea comes at a time when other experts are offering recommendations to the Trump administration.
Patrick Cronin, director of the Center for a New American Security's Asia-Pacific Security Program, and others, stated in a recent report the incoming administration must engage in "sustained Third Offset strategic planning" that includes concentrating on developing "quick hits such as fully exploiting current technological capabilities, to complicate North Korean planning and demonstrate the capability to fight limited war and shoot down mass missile salvos."
Third Offset Strategies must engage South Korea in planning, the study says.
