Photo : YONHAP News
Former U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien has denounced as “dicey” remarks by International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi that seemingly recognized North Korea as a nuclear state.
O’Brien, who had served as national security adviser to the former U.S. President Donald Trump, made the remark on Monday during a symposium in Washington hosted by a network of security and economy experts of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.
In an interview with The Associated Press last Thursday, Grossi said North Korea became a “de facto” nuclear weapons state in 2006, calling to recognize that the regime has nuclear weapons and pursue dialogue, despite its violations of UN sanctions.
Also on Monday, O’Brien said denuclearization is the goal when asked if the U.S.’ policy on the North’s nuclear weapons will shift focus from denuclearization to nonproliferation should Trump be reelected.
On the costs sharing for the upkeep of U.S. Forces in Korea, O’Brien said should Trump become president again, South Korea could expand its contribution to such costs.
O’Brien said requesting the other party to pay more for defense costs is, in actuality, recognizing that the bilateral alliance is working and not a rejection of the alliance.
During a forum last week in Washington, O’Brien had urged South Korea to dramatically increase its defense spending.
He had stressed the need for Seoul to raise its defense spending to between three percent and three-and-a-half percent of its gross domestic product(GDP), saying Japan has greatly increased its defense spending while South Korea spends just two-point-five percent of its GDP on defense.