US should establish diplomatic ties with ‘enemy’ North Korea: former Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani

The United States should recognise that sanctions and isolation have had little effect on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and try a radically different approach – like establishing diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

Washington’s approach to Pyongyang over the past 30 years had failed to alter its behaviour, though US President Donald Trump had made the right move by engaging North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in face-to-face summits, said Mahbubani, currently a distinguished Fellow with the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.

Speaking at a virtual session titled Defusing Asia’s Geopolitical Flashpoints, Mahbubani – once Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN – argued that diplomacy entailed speaking to one’s enemies, “and since North Korea is an enemy, [the US] should establish diplomatic relations with the enemy”.

North Korea currently has formal diplomatic relations with 164 countries, according to the US-based National Committee on North Korea, but not with the US, Japan or South Korea.