Biden appoints Amb. Sung Kim as special envoy to North Korea, signals commitment to diplomacy

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President Biden announced he is appointing Ambassador Sung Kim as special envoy to North Korea, suggesting he wants to take a diplomatic approach toward ending the communist nation's nuclear program. 

Sung Kim is currently serving as American ambassador to Indonesia after previously serving as chief American envoy to the Philippines and South Korea.

Biden said in a news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-In that both nations share a "willingness to engage diplomatically" with the DPRK, to work towards the "ultimate goal of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

NORTH KOREA VOWS TO RESPOND TO BIDEN'S ‘HOSTILE POLICY’

Moon was the second foreign leader to visit the White House, after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have heightened in recent months after the DPRK denounced the U.S. for moving forward with joint military exercises with South Korea, firing missile tests in response. 

The Biden administration completed a months-long review of North Korea policy in late April and promised to chart a different path than former President Trump. 

The Washington Post first reported  that the Biden Administration wants to find a "middle" ground between Trump's grand bargain strategy where he courted face-to-face diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Barack Obama's arms-length approach where he withheld diplomacy until North Korea changed its behavior. 

"Our policy towards North Korea is not aimed at hostility. It's aimed at solutions," Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said after the review's completion. 

After the review, Reuters reported that an unnamed spokesman from the country said it was clear that the U.S. is preparing for an "all-out showdown" and will be answered accordingly. 

Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Department of U.S. Affairs, said it is an encroachment upon North Korea's right to self-defense to ask the nation to give up its nuclear capability.

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Kwon said that Biden has the "intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the U.S. for over half a century."

Biden said he and Moon had also discussed cooperation to strengthen cybersecurity, build a 5G network, and build a Covid-19 vaccine partnership.