North Korea News Podcast by NK News - Sean King: Why Trump’s reelection could see Kim Jong Un visit the White House

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

On today’s episode, former U.S. government official and scholar Sean King joins the podcast to discuss what Washington’s foreign policy is likely to look like under President-elect Donald Trump.  He’ll also talk about who Trump has picked for his administration so far and their relevance to events on and around the Korean Peninsula, as well […]

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in the second term at the White House and what that means for the Korean Peninsula. Welcome on the podcast, Sean. Jackal, good to be with you. So Donald Trump is president once more. Overall, just as an opening statement, what do you expect this means for US foreign policy, particularly in the Indo Pacific region? We can't really be sure because Trump seems to make up his mind as he goes along and change his strategy. Remember, he came in

claiming that China raped America in the first campaign, and then he ends up saying that Xi Jinping respects him and that he's a good close friend. And as you know, late as February 2020, he was tweeting out that Xi Jinping was being very transparent and he thanked him for his help on the coronavirus pandemic. So then he goes from fire and fury to exchanging love letters with Kim Jong-un. I don't know, but what I do know is that it's going to be playing allies and partners against each other and looking out for US interests, supposedly, but with the expense of US strategy.

So it's gonna be a mishmash. And I'm just, I'm prepared enough not to be prepared, because I, we don't know what it's going to be. And it could change from one year and one week to the next for the next four years. Right. One of those words that, uh, adjectives that people throw around when describing president Trump's style of policy is mercurial, that he can really change his mind from, you know, from moment to moment. And is that a fair description? Yeah.

You know, that seems like some kind of dark, sinister thing. I think it's, it moves him or what animates him at the moment or who lights him up, who gets to him, who talks to him last. And I think personal connections mean a lot for him, obviously, and media does and celebrity factor and imagery. So whoever maybe puts on the best show is going to have his ear. Yeah. Now, he's named a few people to his cabinet already. These folks haven't yet been confirmed. And there's always the question of how long somebody will last under President Trump. I mean, his first time in the White House, I think the figure I heard was that 35% of his top advisors didn't reach a full year in their job. So, but I want to just give a brief rundown of each of the

the four people whose names I've heard who are most relevant to events on and around the Korean Peninsula and get a couple of thoughts from you. So obviously we should start off with Marco Rubio, Senator Marco Rubio, who's been named to be Secretary of State. Now some say that he's more of an establishment, old-style Republican, with some experience serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So he's not a complete outsider. He's also seen as being somewhat close to his Republican predecessor, Mike Pompeo, and a hardliner on China and North Korea. Do you have any thoughts on how Marco Rubio might lead the State Department? Well, you mean, I'm sure you mean little Marco as Donald Trump called him in 2016 when they were going at each other in the primary.

You know, I was in Michigan last year. He was your pick in that primary, wasn't he? Yeah, I voted for him in the New York primary, GOP, Little Marco. So with his bottles of water on TV earlier when he gave the Republican rebuttal to Obama's address. You know, I was in Michigan last week and people were asking me, so who's gonna be secretary of state after Trump fires Rubio?

They're already thinking that far ahead. Right, right, right. Yeah, I mean, Rubio is a bit of a surprising pick because he is very establishment and very hawkish. You know, you could call him one of these neocons who gets us into what Donald Trump calls endless wars. And he was a very bitter personal rival of the president, president Alex once upon a time, but he's totally come around to Donald Trump now in a

party and he's even parroted some of his talking points on Ukraine about having to get out, but Rubio is a really principled when it comes to human rights issues, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, his family having fled from communist Cuba. And he's a real, real hardliner when it comes to the PRC. And it was he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had co-authored the human rights legislation on Hong Kong. And he'd also done a lot on Xinjiang and the Uyghurs. So,

and you know there's a bounty on his head or an arrest warrant for him in the Mainland China. So I don't know, it'd be interesting as Secretary of State how he can go to Beijing if these, there's a warrant out for his arrest. Wow. Yeah, because of what he said and done on Chinese, China issues. But he, it is a refreshing choice. but I think, you know, we can't get too carried away with looking at all the different cabinet members for Trump. For Trump, it's going to be about what he thinks and what he wants to do. And he likes people who respect him. And he, as we saw in his summit tree with Kim Jong-un in 2018, it's leader to leader.

And he expects whoever works in the cabinet to be working for him and to come along with him. And he's gonna deal with the leader of any country one-on-one. And if he doesn't like him, he'll change him and switch him out. So sure, cabinet members can have influence and they can maybe slow things down, but I think we have to look more at Trump himself

as opposed to what any other cabinet members do. But Rubio is a good choice, I have to say. Sure, but yeah, the cabinet members, they do help to set the tone a little bit for the start, even though as you say, Donald Trump is, it's all about himself. Yeah, and they can also, they can be helpful in slow walking things and sort of meander the bureaucracy. But you know, Trump's been there once before and he knows, he knows the telltale signs when somebody's trying to pull something over on him. So the way maybe Mattis was able to delay things in the past he won't it won't happen again this time. Now he's going to know exactly what to do. Now another pick there is is Tulsi Gabbard,

as director of national intelligence. Now some people call her a conspiracy theorist. She's certainly highly unorthodox once having a private meeting with Syria's president Bashar al-Assad without apparently without having been authorized to do so. She's also apparently more in favor of deescalation and diplomacy rather than military solutions. But as director of national intelligence, I'm not sure what kind of voice she would have in the decision making process. Can you say something about that role, that position of national security advisor?

Well, that's not National Security Advisor. And this is the role that Averyl Haynes is. I think it's not National, Director of National Intelligence. I got that wrong. Yeah. Averyl Haynes has had this job for President Biden. And it's interesting because you mentioned her Syrian connection there. And we know of the Syria, North Korea, North Korea connection through Iran. And remember her being a former Hawaiian congresswoman. It was

Guam that was in the target of a supposed fake missile from North Korea a few years ago, and the fat anti missile defense batteries are out there on the Indo Pacific Indo Peccom and Honolulu. But that's, that's a little concerning that she would, somebody like that with that kind of attitude would be that close to the president. But I see her more as a collector and disseminator of intelligence

as opposed to coming up with any policies. I can't think of anything that President Biden did because of something Avril Haines said. She's there to collate information and leave it up to the president. None of this stuff really matters. He's going to do what he wants to do. He's not into briefings. So yeah, he's like, you know, giving him PowerPoints. He's like, I don't do PowerPoint. I'm not into this stuff. So she'll talk to him in a way that he can understand, but she's just going to give him information, but he's going to make the decisions on her own.

But whatever isolationist or go it alone or authoritarian instincts he may have, she will certainly encourage those. That's just a glimpse of what's coming up in this episode. Don't miss the full conversation. Become an NK News member for the entire podcast episode, as well as daily news insights, stories episode.