I was interviewed by email, along with other Korean affairs experts, on the promised South Korean provision of humanitarian aid to North Korea. I’m identified as the Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed International Journal on World Peace. The article is in Korean (use Google Translate to get the gist of the full article):

https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/news_indepth/nkaid-05232019161237.html

Here’s my original English:

• $8 million of initial food aid through UN agencies is the right thing for South Korea to do, and it is good that President Trump already said the U.S. would not object. After September’s Pyongyang summit, where President Moon spoke to the North Korean people, it is essential the South provide food aid, if only because the people of the North must see the South as caring about helping the North in need.
• More humanitarian assistance will be needed, and to the extent necessary, UN sanctions must be waived where appropriate to permit more inter-Korean aid. It is unlikely that the Trump administration will contribute to the UN World Food Programme as previous administrations did in the past, so the burden is primarily on the ROK.
• At their summit in late June, Presidents Trump and Moon should lay the policy groundwork for significantly more assistance to the North that would go on for the next few years. The current historic lack of rainfall will likely mean that the fall harvest in the North will be very poor, and that severe food shortages will continue into 2020.
• Humanitarian aid has little linkage with arms control, but it must proceed for humanitarian reasons. The only thing that will break the stalled nuclear talks is a third Trump-Kim summit with well-prepared groundwork. For the summit to take place, President Trump should either agree to travel to Pyongyang or invite Kim to Hawaii or Alaska (U.S. territory, but not on the mainland) and strike a meaningful deal not only on reducing the DPRK nuclear program, but lifting some significant UN sanctions, establish liaison offices, and agree to cultural exchanges. This must happen in 2019, and the earlier the better.♦