U.S. Special Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun speaks at a press conference in Tokyo earlier this month. Shizuo Kambayashi / AP
The U.S. Is Losing Its Point-Man on North Korea and Still Has No Ambassador in Seoul
Joseph Yun announced his retirement Tuesday.
In an interview with Fox News last November, Donald Trump addressed a question about the many unfilled positions in the State Department. “Let me tell you, the one that matters is me,” he said. “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.”
That did not bode well for highly experienced diplomats like Joseph Yun, who announced his retirement Tuesday. Yun has been the United States’s point-man on North Korea in recent years, serving as special representative to the isolated country and deputy assistant secretary for Korea and Japan. He has over three decades of diplomatic experience. His last day is Friday.
While Yun said his departure was for personal reasons, the timing of his announcement is hard to ignore. Yun has been pushing for more dialogue with North Korea, which has recently indicated its willingness to hold talks with the United States, but without preconditions. The Trump administration, for its part, has insisted that any talks with Pyongyang must have nuclear disarmament as the end goal. South Korean president Moon Jae-in suggested Monday that the United States “needs to lower its bar for dialogue, and the North, too, must show its willingness to denuclearize.”
Yun’s departure will fuel speculation that the Trump administration is seriously considering military action against North Korea. It follows another highly respected North Korea expert, Victor Cha, George W. Bush’s top North Korea representative, not becoming, to the surprise of many, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea last month. Though he seemed the perfect candidate and was the clear front-runner, Cha told the administration he disliked the idea of a “bloody nose” strike against North Korea—and found himself out of the running. He then wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post explaining why such a move would be against U.S. interests (paywall).
Yun’s abrupt departure, coupled with Cha’s rejection, highlights an alarming lack of Korea expertise in the Trump administration, at a crucial time when seasoned voices are particularly needed.
But as Trump made clear in November, in his mind there’s only one voice that really matters.