Idea of Trump willing to allow N. Korea to keep nukes 'not implausible': US expert

Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) speaks during a virtual forum hosted by CSIS in this photo captured from CSIS' YouTube account, Jan. 11. Yonhap

A U.S. expert said Tuesday that it is "not implausible" that former President Donald Trump, if reelected, could allow North Korea to keep its nuclear program under certain conditions, including its halt on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches.

Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made the remarks, touching on a Politico report last month that Trump is considering a negotiation formula, under which Pyongyang freezes its nuclear program and stops building new weapons in return for incentives.

Trump has dismissed the report as "fake news," but speculation about his potential approach to the North's nuclear quandary has persisted as he is seeking a second White House term.

"(The article) which talked about Trump willing to basically accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state as long as they didn't fire ICBMs in the direction of the United States and then lifting sanctions in order to get them to behave responsibly as a nuclear weapons state," Cha said at a virtual CSIS forum.

"I think that is not implausible in the sense that it would cost Trump least. It would probably mean less U.S.-Japan-ROK military exercising, which he doesn't like because it's too expensive," he added. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

Cha pointed out that Trump's foreign policy is "largely dictated by money."

"That is like his primary compass for foreign policy. It is not protection of values and democracy," he said. "It is really about money."

The notion of North Korea being accepted as a nuclear weapons state would have ripple effects for security in the region, Cha said.

"It would affect the way South Korea looked at their security, would affect the way Japan looked at their security," he said.

Touching on growing military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, Cha predicted that China would feel the need to get closer to the North.

"The closer Russia and North Korea get, the more China will feel its need to try to engage (and) try to strategically tighten its relationship with North Korea," he said, raising the prospects of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)