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Special Discussion with Ambassador Philip Goldberg
Update: 2024-06-14
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In this episode, Dr. Cha and Ambassador Philip Goldberg explore the latest developments on the Korean peninsula and the U.S.-ROK alliance. Topics will include Korea's unique aspects as seen by Ambassador Goldberg; his priorities for U.S.-Korea relations; and the significance of recent regional developments, including the U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral meeting, the Japan-ROK-China trilateral dialogue, and North Korea's recent provocations and ties with Russia.
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Transcript
00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:02
North Korea is the impossible state.
00:00:05
It's a place that stumped leaders and policymakers for more than three decades.
00:00:10
It has a complex history.
00:00:12
And it has become the United States' top national security priority.
00:00:17
Each week on this show, we'll talk with the people who know the most about North Korea.
00:00:21
It's June 11, 2024,
00:00:31
and welcome to another episode of the Impossible State podcast at CSIS.
00:00:36
I'm your host, Victor Choss, Senior Vice President for Asia, Korea Chair at CSIS, and Professor at Georgetown University.
00:00:44
And we are very excited today to have on the podcast all the way from Seoul, South Korea, the US Ambassador to South Korea, the Honorable Philip Goldberg.
00:00:57
I'm going to properly introduce him because he has an amazing wealth of experience when it comes to US diplomacy.
00:01:07
As I said, he is currently the US Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, confirmed by the Senate in May of 2022.
00:01:16
Before that, he held a number of ambassador posts.
00:01:20
And I would say probably makes you one of the most experienced senior diplomat in the professional core of the State Department.
00:01:30
He was ambassador to Columbia from 2019 to 2022.
00:01:36
He was Charger de Ferres in Cuba in 2018.
00:01:40
He was also ambassador to the Philippines, one of our largest embassies in Asia, from 2013 to 2016, and as well as ambassador in Bolivia from 2006 to 2008.
00:01:54
He was also assistant secretary in the Bureau for Intelligence and Research, otherwise known as INR.
00:02:03
And for you, Korea watches out there.
00:02:07
Ambassador Goldberg's current stint as our chief representative in Seoul is not his only experience with Korea.
00:02:14
Because in 2009 and 2010, he was the special envoy for sanctions implementation.
00:02:22
I don't know if that's the right title.
00:02:23
Special envoy.
00:02:25
I remember back then we called you all special envoy.
00:02:28
For sanctions implementation with regard to North Korea.
00:02:32
He was also chief of mission in Kosovo, chief of mission in Chile.
00:02:37
He holds a personal rank of career ambassador, which is the highest distinction or rank in the professional foreign service at the State Department, and has won numerous awards,
00:02:49
including the Presidential Distinguished and Maritorial Service Award, the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, and the Silver Seal Medallion for Maritorial Service in the U.S.
00:03:02
intelligence community.
00:03:04
He is a native of Boston, Massachusetts.
00:03:06
Are you a Red Sox fan?
00:03:07
Absolutely.
00:03:08
OK, well, I'm a Yankees fan, so we can talk about that some other time.
00:03:12
Well, not this year, we don't have to talk about it.
00:03:17
And he's a graduate of Boston University.
00:03:19
And before the foreign service, you were working in New York City?
00:03:23
Is that right?
00:03:23
That's right.
00:03:24
At the United Nations, as the liaison between the U.N.
00:03:27
and the city government, we were-- before the Office of Foreign Missions was formed at the State Department.
00:03:34
We actually did some of the work that they now do.
00:03:37
I see.
00:03:37
Yeah, I see.
00:03:38
And then how did you end up deciding to go into the foreign service?
00:03:41
Well, I was exposed to that world and all of the diplomats in New York.
00:03:46
And it was almost by accident that I took the Foreign Service exam.
00:03:51
One of my colleagues was doing it.
00:03:52
And he ended up joining the Foreign Service too.
00:03:54
In fact, two of the people who worked-- three of the people who worked with me in that office, we all joined the Foreign Service around the same time.
00:04:01
Oh, wow.
00:04:02
That's a great story.
00:04:04
Anyway, it's a real pleasure to have you on the Impossible State podcast.
00:04:08
I would have to say, we're a motley crew here.
00:04:11
And you are our most distinguished guest.
00:04:13
Let's put it up.
00:04:14
I'm very kind to say that, Victor.
00:04:15
And I remember, as you went through my resume, we've had a lot of contact over the years, especially during that period when I was doing the sanctions implementation on North Korea.
00:04:25
Yes, yes.
00:04:25
Well, it's really good to see you.
00:04:29
It's really good to have you in the studio here at CSIS in Washington, DC.
00:04:33
And that is because you're here for the Chief of Mission's conference.
00:04:39
And so maybe we can start off by you telling us a little bit about what that is.
00:04:44
Our viewers listeners probably don't have an inside view of what Chief of Mission's is.
00:04:50
But that would be great if you could tell us what you've been doing over the past week.
00:04:53
Well, most of the Chiefs of Mission are ambassadors.
00:04:56
There are a few who are charge a defer or other ranks at an embassy, but or at a mission overseas.
00:05:07
When I was in Kosovo, I was Chief of Mission.
00:05:10
But we didn't have an embassy yet, because it was not an independent country.
00:05:14
So it might have a different title.
00:05:18
But the Chiefs of Mission conference is to bring us all together first in a global conference and to bring us all together to discuss kind of generic themes that are affecting all of us,
00:05:30
like Ukraine, Gaza, how that is impacting various posts and policy and discussions.
00:05:39
For example, in South Korea, there's all a constant discussion about Ukraine and about Russia and Russia's relationship with Pyongyang.
00:05:49
So again, even though we're discussing a global issue, South Korea is now a global pivotal state.
00:05:56
And so there's a relationship to those issues.
00:06:02
And so we get together first in that global setting with all of us.
00:06:07
And then the third day, we split off into our respective regional bureaus and have discussions there.
00:06:15
So the East Asian Pacific Bureau at the State Department led by Dan Critt and Brink then broke out into that for the day on Wednesday.
00:06:23
And we discuss regional issues, things like China or other regional issues, Taiwan, DPRK.
00:06:34
And also administrative issues.
00:06:37
Our budget, which is constantly being cut and the need to economize as we always do.
00:06:44
So that's why we get together.
00:06:48
And also so the Secretary Blinken spent a lot of time with us can also articulate what he's thinking about and on those big issues,
00:06:59
but also on some of the smaller issues related to the State Department's operations.
00:07:06
So that's what we were doing this week.
00:07:08
And I guess it's also a good opportunity to see all friends and colleagues that are spread out all across the world.
00:07:16
Right, absolutely.
00:07:17
And people that you don't see often in the case of the East Asian Pacific region, we saw each other.
00:07:25
Many of us in January, we had a regional conference also with the Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu.
00:07:35
But a lot of people you don't see.
00:07:37
And so I've been doing this for a long time.
00:07:40
So I see people from over the years, it's really nice.
00:07:45
But also hearing what's going on in their places and in their relationships.
00:07:50
And also what's happening in their embassies and what morale is like.
00:07:54
And all of the issues that we deal with on a daily basis.
00:07:58
What is the RMSC in Seoul?
00:08:01
I mean, you were in the Philippines, right?
00:08:03
Which is, I think, one of our biggest embassies.
00:08:05
RMSC in Seoul, how relatively speaking, how big is it?
00:08:08
Well, it's not as big as the Philippines.
00:08:10
And it's not as big as Colombia, in part, because we don't have agencies such as the USAID,
00:08:20
or in the case of Colombia, the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA is very prominent because of the nature of the work that we do there.
00:08:31
So those are bigger embassies.
00:08:35
And the State Department, of course, provides the platform at embassies.
00:08:39
But it has a country team that has all kinds of different agencies and departments that have specific interests in those countries and carry some of the workload,
00:08:51
of course.
00:08:52
So this, actually, Seoul is a smaller embassy, but in some ways, bigger issues.
00:08:59
Huge strategic issues for the United States, because of the threats from the DPRK.
00:09:08
But also the new relationship or the kind of revitalized relationship that we have with the ROK, the huge economic interests on both sides.
00:09:19
And what we're doing to really expand our alliance into new areas.
00:09:24
So it's a smaller staff maybe, but in some ways, even bigger issues.
00:09:30
Yeah.
00:09:32
I wanted to talk with you about some of those issues.
00:09:34
But the first thing I wanted to get your sense of is, as I introduced in your bio, you've been all over the world.
00:09:41
You've been representing the United States at the highest levels all over the world.
00:09:45
Many different posts as a ambassador.
00:09:50
First time, I think, in country in Korea, is that right?
00:09:53
Or as a junior officer, your first time in country in Korea.
00:09:57
So when you compare Korea to all your other experiences, what stands out, what has stood out for you, what is interesting or different about your service in Korea?
00:10:09
I think that some of the issues that I just mentioned make this a kind of different experience.
00:10:18
Columbia, which I know very well, we were dealing with drugs and immigration.
00:10:24
But in some ways, a smaller portfolio, but important issues.
00:10:32
And we do all kinds of other things.
00:10:35
And there was an economic relationship and business relationships.
00:10:39
But it's on a different scale with Korea.
00:10:42
So professionally, on the substantive side, there is just much more.
00:10:47
We had to deal with early on.
00:10:49
And my stay in Seoul, issues like the Inflation Reduction Act, and what that meant for Korean companies, and especially Hyundai Kia,
00:11:00
and how we would settle some of the issues on the implementation of that law.
00:11:05
It was a challenge.
00:11:06
And it was intellectually challenging, too, to have to grapple with all of the intricate parts of the law.
00:11:14
Same with the CHIPS Act.
00:11:15
And we're going through many of those issues at the moment still.
00:11:21
And we've done very well with them.
00:11:22
And all of those are going to, I think, in the end benefit Korea mightily.
00:11:28
But they're challenges.
00:11:30
And both in a diplomatic sense, but also for business, and our economic well-being and economic state craft is an important part of what we do.
00:11:43
So that's on a different scale, I think, than other places I've been.
00:11:48
But there are still those other issues that I've dealt with in Kosovo and somewhat in Colombia of war and peace because of the North Korea challenge and all of their provocations and threats.
00:12:02
So it brings in that element.
00:12:04
We have 28,500 troops there with USFK and the UN command.
00:12:10
And so that, too, brings those issues into play.
00:12:16
And so it's just a really, in some ways, more multifaceted than some of the other places I've been.
00:12:24
That's interesting.
00:12:25
So in some of the other places you mentioned, there may be one sort of big issue that was-- in one case, it might have been the drug issue.
00:12:35
Whereas in Korea, it's just a multitude of things, larger scale, and there are new things that are coming up.
00:12:41
Like you said, the CHIP SEC, the IRA.
00:12:43
Coming down the road, there could be other things.
00:12:45
Right, they'd have both government touch points, but also you have to deal a lot with businesses, the Chables in Korea.
00:12:57
And it's just multi-dimensional.
00:12:59
Yeah, interesting, interesting.
00:13:03
Well, let's talk a little bit about some of these issues.
00:13:07
You're a master now at a time when the alliance is in really great shape.
00:13:12
I mean, thanks to your hard work and your team's hard work.
00:13:17
The alliance is in great shape.
00:13:18
Views of the United States alliance with the United States, I think, are at all time highs now in the South cream public.
00:13:29
You spoke to it a little bit already, but what do you see as sort of the priorities in the alliance relationship going forward, the things that you've been working very hard on, and the things that you see coming down the road?
00:13:42
We had two very important events last year when first President Yoon paid his state visit to Washington.
00:13:51
And during that visit, we issued the Washington Declaration, which includes the formation of the Nuclear Consultative Group, which provides more reassurance to South Korea on our nuclear umbrella,
00:14:07
on our complete backing of South Korea and its people in the face of these provocation and threats from North Korea.
00:14:17
We also, at the same time, issued a joint statement that broadens and deepens this relationship into new areas of technology and science.
00:14:28
And so of assistance programs where we work together in Southeast Asia and in the Pacific Islands.
00:14:36
So it's a much broader relationship now.
00:14:38
And so we're branching into new areas.
00:14:40
And it fits very closely with the global pivotal state that South Korea is now working towards.
00:14:50
And some ways has already accomplished.
00:14:53
Both because of its soft power, which is incredible these days, everything from K-pop and K music and K dramas and K movies,
00:15:04
but also its economic might.
00:15:07
And so it's playing a different role.
00:15:10
And that joint statement reflects these new areas where we're working together.
00:15:14
And that's very important.
00:15:17
Then there was the trilateral summit at Camp David, which was also something that was very new and exciting.
00:15:26
Because while there had been trilateral meetings before and attempts to really get the three countries together, I think it goes back to President Yun's very courageous decision politically to try to repair Korean-Japanese relations.
00:15:45
And it started a virtuous cycle that had reciprocal measures from Japan, from Prime Minister Kishida.
00:15:55
It started with the announcement that President Yun made about compensation and addressing one of the historical issues.
00:16:07
Not very easy in Korea.
00:16:09
But he did this in the interests, I think, of the future.
00:16:14
So just for our viewers, you're referring to the South Korean government's decision to compensate the workers out of the Supreme Court case.
00:16:25
And forming a foundation to actually deal with that issue.
00:16:33
That led to President Yun visiting Japan, Prime Minister Kishida paying a reciprocal visit to Seoul, then being invited to the G7 summit that Kishida was hosting,
00:16:50
joint visit they made and symbolically very important to a memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
00:17:02
So all of this, as I say, is part of a process.
00:17:05
And then President Biden and we all took good advantage of that by bringing us all together, like-minded countries,
00:17:15
democratic countries, concerned about many of the same issues in the region and the world.
00:17:20
And we're working together on many of those issues that I mentioned in the joint statement.
00:17:25
We're now doing also trilaterally.
00:17:28
So that really formed the basis of what we're doing in our work agenda right now, is implementing all of that.
00:17:37
So you seem to be saying the message is that the scope of the alliance really has grown in terms of not just the things are covering bilaterally,
00:17:48
but those have global implications.
00:17:50
The things are working out.
00:17:51
Absolutely, yeah.
00:17:52
It does everywhere from Ukraine to the Middle East, but back, especially, one of the issues that was touched on in the Camp David agreements was freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait.
00:18:11
So all of those are very important for bringing like-minded democratic countries together, especially as we face a wave of authoritarianism in the world.
00:18:24
Yeah.
00:18:25
I don't think we've ever seen the Korean government make statements like they did on Taiwan and on South China Sea.
00:18:32
Right.
00:18:33
Those were both in the state visit as well as in Camp David, right?
00:18:37
But the one at Camp David was very far-reaching.
00:18:41
It actually referred to China's illegal and dangerous activities in the second time a show, which continues to be a problem.
00:18:49
That's where that abandon ship is of the Philippines is located.
00:18:55
So, yeah, it's really forward-leaning as have been President Yoon's statements about Taiwan and the need to handle any resolution of that issue peacefully.
00:19:10
And then I can't remember where he said it, but there was also some reference to peace in the Taiwan Strait being an internet having internet.
00:19:17
He did.
00:19:18
That was not necessarily the view from Beijing.
00:19:22
Yeah, we're not very happy with that.
00:19:27
Terrific.
00:19:28
So, let's talk a little bit about you mentioned the state visit last year as well as the Camp David trilateral meeting.
00:19:37
So, there was a bunch of things that happened in the last week that kind of follow on from those very important meetings in 2023.
00:19:48
The last week there was a trilateral Vice Foreign Minister's meeting that took place at Deputy Secretary Campbell's Farm.
00:20:00
I had a chance to meet the Vice Foreign Minister from Korea in Seoul before he came to the U.S.
00:20:07
So, what is your sense of the readout from that?
00:20:11
What was accomplished there?
00:20:13
Clearly, it's in the tradition of continuing to institutionalize this trilateral relationship, but the Deputy Vice Foreign Minister meetings, that's where real work gets done,
00:20:23
right?
00:20:24
I mean, there's ceremonial stuff at the top level, but real work gets done at that Deputy Secretary level.
00:20:31
So, absolutely, that's the case.
00:20:34
So, we talked about some of the initiatives that are in train in technology and bringing together the three countries on all kinds of new initiatives that we're working on.
00:20:49
And I'm referring to the press statement that we put out from FarmLat, we called it because of Trilat.
00:20:56
We called it FarmLat.
00:20:57
That's great.
00:20:58
I love it.
00:20:59
So, yeah, no, it was an extravaganza.
00:21:03
It was really great.
00:21:05
So, such items as a trilateral technology, leaders program, which was hosted by John Hopkins, SICE,
00:21:15
which will train middle-level policy makers from the three countries in critical areas, like emerging tech, semi-conductors, supply chain issues, committed to supporting the rescue and recovering efforts in the Papua New Guinea,
00:21:31
which has suffered from all kinds of flooding and other natural disasters.
00:21:36
So, and USAID is going to provide field-level support, including last-mile humanitarian logistics and distribution of aid.
00:21:45
So, those are the kinds of things that we can do together.
00:21:49
And show especially the Pacific Islands that we're serious about trying to really not just work together,
00:21:59
but also to multiply our ability to have funds available.
00:22:05
So, those are some of the things we're working on a quantum physics trilateral with universities, Seoul National University, Tokyo University,
00:22:16
and University of Chicago.
00:22:18
If you're wondering why University of Chicago, it might have had something to do with our ambassador in Japan, always once mayor of Chicago, but Ram has done tremendous work on that.
00:22:30
So, we're making efforts on how to work closely with ASEAN, the PICS, the Blue Pacific Initiative.
00:22:39
So, again, we're going to have the trilateral youth summit in Pusan this summer, which was an outcome of the Camp David agreement.
00:22:49
So, we discussed that and how that's moving along.
00:22:54
And also on the military front and security front.
00:23:00
You know, there are all kinds of things going on, just today or yesterday, there was a new coast guard exercise between the three countries.
00:23:09
So, there is a lot going forward.
00:23:11
And so, that's what was under discussion.
00:23:14
- Yeah, yeah.
00:23:15
The trilateral youth summit, the one in Pusan, some of our students, our Georgetown students are going to be participating in that.
00:23:23
I can't remember if they're representing the US or Korea, but I know a lot of our students applied for that, so.
00:23:30
- That's great.
00:23:31
So, that's guys, I assume you're going to be - Yeah.
00:23:34
- Participating in that.
00:23:35
- Sure will.
00:23:36
- Okay, you can look out for them.
00:23:38
So, I mean, this is just an amazing list of things.
00:23:41
And it's sort of really sort of showing the deep roots that are being dug in this trilateral relationship so that you can continue.
00:23:51
It's not just one summit meeting in August last year.
00:23:55
It's something that will continue.
00:23:57
Speaking of sort of the sort of detail at the granular level, some of this cooperation, the other thing that we noticed was that on the sidelines of the Shangri-La,
00:24:09
this week, the Koreans and the Japanese seemed to have reached a defense agreement in terms of how they engage with each other.
00:24:17
There was an incident a few years ago in which there was a semi-hostile encounter between Japanese and Korean vessels,
00:24:27
right?
00:24:27
Let's see, from a U.S.
00:24:30
government perspective, what is the view on this agreement?
00:24:33
- I think they are close to putting that to rest, which will open up new opportunities, I think, for cooperation.
00:24:42
There'll be less resistance to some of the outgrowth of that incident, which prevented the two sides from having a really fluid relationship on exercises and the rest,
00:24:57
and I think that's great.
00:24:59
We've revived the Jisomia, the intelligence agreement between the two.
00:25:04
We're working on a new agreement that's now in effect on sharing missile data real time.
00:25:12
There are all kinds of new things that are going on that will bring the three together.
00:25:17
So, yes, I think that putting that radar lock issue, which is what we call it, to rest, I think, will go a long ways towards,
00:25:28
again, furthering our goals of more cooperation.
00:25:33
- Yeah, and I think it also shows how committed the leaders of the two countries are because, as you know, neither of them are very popular right now in their own countries,
00:25:45
and yet they're continuing to push on these things, right?
00:25:48
Which aren't necessarily popular, but they're clearly in the national interest of these countries.
00:25:52
And let me, not just because I'm ambassador, and so, again, stress the role that President Yun has played in putting this all together, and enabling this process to move forward,
00:26:06
in his deep commitment to resolving some of the longstanding issues with Japan that's allowed us to come together as a trilateral, too.
00:26:15
It is politically remarkable, and it also is due, in my view, to his deep conviction that this is the right thing to do for the national interest of the ROK,
00:26:28
and it seems to be working, so I can't stress that enough.
00:26:33
- So, I love this term of farm lat that you've given to this trilateral, but of course, that was not the only trilateral that took place.
00:26:43
It was also a trilateral in soul between Japan, South Korean, and Chinese leaders.
00:26:51
We used to call it the plus three trilateral.
00:26:53
I don't know what they call it now.
00:26:55
As you know better than I, the Koreans have really been focused on getting this trilateral restarted.
00:27:02
It had not taken place for years, in part because of COVID, but also because of sort of tense relations.
00:27:08
I'm not gonna ask you to comment on what they discussed at the trilateral, but I think viewers are always interested, and it's a question I always get.
00:27:17
Viewers are always interested in understanding how the US government views things like this, this trilateral between our two allies in China.
00:27:27
What is the US government view on these things?
00:27:30
- As you know, this is a longstanding process that has been going on this trilateral between Japan, Korea, and China.
00:27:39
I think it maybe has a little bit different dynamic now with the improved relations between Korea and Japan.
00:27:46
But I think what's happening really is a natural process of trying to manage relations, as we're doing too with China.
00:27:58
That's true for Korea in a bilateral sense, but also in this trilateral sense.
00:28:04
Of trying to have those agreements where we can and disagreements where we must and competition where we must.
00:28:15
And so I think that's what this is all about.
00:28:18
So we're not concerned about it.
00:28:20
It's part of a natural process, and we engage with China and are engaging more Secretary Blinken's been there a couple of times over the last year,
00:28:31
Secretary Yellen, Secretary Remondo.
00:28:34
So we have interaction at very high levels.
00:28:38
This brought the Chinese Prime Minister to Seoul, where he met with President Yoon bilaterally, as well as the trilateral setting.
00:28:46
Prime Minister Kishida, of course, was there as well.
00:28:49
And it gave them a chance to have more discussions about improving Korean-Japan relations.
00:28:56
So yeah, we just see this as a process that is designed to manage those relationships.
00:29:05
- Yeah, okay, great.
00:29:07
I'm looking, how are we doing on time?
00:29:08
We're still good on time.
00:29:10
I wanted to move for the last segment to North Korea your thoughts on North Korea.
00:29:17
So the news obviously over the past week has been this, the sending of these balloons by the North Koreans into South Korea.
00:29:27
They were also reports are jamming GPS along the disputed water line between the two countries.
00:29:36
So wanted to get your thoughts on these light.
00:29:41
And of course, they're firing a lot of missiles.
00:29:43
But we saw really combination of these three things over the past week.
00:29:49
And I just wanted to get your views on that.
00:29:51
Are you worried about escalation or things stable?
00:29:56
How are the US and are okay looking at these actions?
00:30:00
- Well, obviously where we consider the balloons filled with trash and maybe excrement.
00:30:07
I don't know whether that's absolutely the case or not, but even the thought of it is, it's outrageous.
00:30:16
And as our spokesman at the State Department said, childish, I mean, it doesn't, we're interested in reducing tensions not in increasing them.
00:30:27
But I think that it's natural for the ROK and President Yun and his government to take measures to show that we are going to continue to deter these provocations as best we can through building up the alliance and by showing resolve.
00:30:44
And that's what we're doing.
00:30:48
Now, whether these tensions are different than earlier tensions, I think that there are things going on and there are dynamics going on that might military in a different direction in part,
00:31:04
because Pyongyang is now engaged in this relationship with Moscow, they're trying to do something or at least manage whatever relationship they have with China at the same time.
00:31:19
And this is part of the back and forth between the two.
00:31:24
And also they're new, and so there may be, I hope, a little bit of caution on that side.
00:31:34
This also has to do with the leaflets that go north and in part, their response from the north.
00:31:44
We, of course, believe in free speech and the rest, but we also understand that we need to reduce tensions, not increase them.
00:31:53
Whether this is a defining moment, I don't think so, but it's just part of something that's going on, especially with the North Korean announcement of a new policy about not wanting unification to separate states,
00:32:08
South Korea being the enemy.
00:32:10
That's new, and it's ideologically new for the Korean Workers' Party for Kim Jong-un.
00:32:17
And so we have to work through some of that as well.
00:32:20
But what they're doing with these balloons are outrageous and so counterproductive to that reduction of tensions.
00:32:30
And we'll stand by our OK allies absolutely in all of this.
00:32:36
But there are other consequences to it as well, having to do with the DMZ and the comprehensive military agreement, which has already been suspended in part by the South Koreans now in full,
00:32:50
but the North Koreans had ended it anyway.
00:32:54
You know, it's something that we watch.
00:32:58
And the other point I'd make, Victor, is that we're ready for anything.
00:33:04
General LaCamera, our USFK, UNC Commander, CFC Commander, they follow this hour by hour,
00:33:16
minute by minute.
00:33:18
And we, at the embassy, do too.
00:33:20
We're ready for anything that happens.
00:33:22
We're not letting our guard down at all, because it's very unpredictable, as you know, as the title of your program indicates the impossible state.
00:33:35
But we're ready.
00:33:37
And we are standing by our allies.
00:33:41
We are discussing the full range of our military and security policies to make sure that the ROK is reassured and the people of the ROK are reassured of the American commitment,
00:33:56
which shouldn't be in doubt.
00:33:57
Those 28,500 troops that are in South Korea are evidence of that long-term commitment.
00:34:04
Yeah.
00:34:05
Well, that's actually a great message upon which to end the conversation.
00:34:10
Ambassador Goldberg, thank you so much for joining us on the Impossible State, joining us in the studio.
00:34:17
Usually you're obviously in Seoul and quite busy, but we're so glad that you took time out of your week in DC among all your meetings and everything else you have to do to spend some time with us.
00:34:28
So thank you very much.
00:34:29
Thanks very much, Victor.
00:34:30
And thank you to our listeners and our viewers for watching another episode of the Impossible State.
00:34:35
We look forward to seeing you again soon.
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