The Daily 202: Biden goes from two messages on North Korea to one

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are currently on a high-profile trip to Asia, with stops in Japan and South Korea. It’s proving to be an opportunity to clear up some early mixed messaging on North Korea.

Since Jan. 20, President Biden and top U.S. diplomats, including Blinken, have used two phrases to describe their goal: “Denuclearize North Korea,” or “denuclearize the Korean peninsula.”

In a Jan. 26 call to his South Korean counterpart, the secretary of state “underscored the continued need for the denuclearization of North Korea.” In a telephone conversation just one day later, Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga “together affirmed the necessity of complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” The State Department affirmed in a Feb. 9 briefing “we do remain committed to the denuclearization of North Korea.” Two days later, Blinken “underscored the need for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart, who also used that formulation.

They may sound close, but mean radically different things — so using them both muddles the public message to allies and to Pyongyang alike.

There are a lot of nuances depending on the expert you talk to, but “denuclearizing North Korea” generally means ensuring Pyongyang no longer poses a nuclear threat to the United States or its allies, like Japan or South Korea.

“Denuclearizing the Korean peninsula” is significantly more complicated. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly committed to “the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” He notably did so in a joint statement with former President Donald Trump after their first summit in June 2018, in Singapore.

The phrase “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” has been a staple of U.S. policymaking — and an unattainable goal — for decades. Trump made history by becoming the first U.S. president to hold a summit with a North Korean leader. But his gamble did not pay off.

Ambiguity arises because the United States pulled its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea soil in 1991. Seoul does not have nuclear weapons.

As my colleague Simon Denyer noted two years ago, the question is “whether that includes a demand for U.S. troops to leave South Korea and pull nuclear-armed American bombers and submarines out of the surrounding region.”

It may sound like mere semantics, but an inability to agree on the definition, or on a formula for the U.S. to ease sanctions in return for steps by North Korea to denuclearize, doomed Trump’s second summit with Kim, in Hanoi in February 2019.

Blinken and other officials seem to be settling into the narrower “denuclearization of North Korea” formulation and rejecting the kinds of concessions Simon mentioned on bombers, submarines, and the like.

In a meeting today with South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook, Austin “noted that the U.S. security commitment to the ROK remains ironclad, including the U.S. extended deterrent underpinned by the full-range of U.S. capabilities,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

“Both leaders noted a commitment to supporting diplomatic efforts to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” said Austin’s spokesman, John Kirby.

Keeping with Seoul’s policy, the South Korean Defense Ministry summary of the meeting referred to a “shared objective of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

But negotiations with North Korea seem on hold.

The Biden administration says policy toward Pyongyang is under review.

And Blinken confirmed this week the United States has reached out to North Korea “through several channels, starting in mid-February” but has not heard back. 

“This follows over a year without active dialogue with North Korea, despite multiple attempts by the United States to engage,” he told reporters.

Simon reported yesterday that Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, “complained about ongoing U.S.-South Korea military exercises on Tuesday and warned the Biden administration that if it wanted peace for the next four years, it should refrain from ‘causing a stink.’ "

With annual joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises underway since March 8, Simon wrote, Kim Yo Jong warned: “If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”

Whatever its private silence and public bombast, North Korea may be waiting to see what comes of the trip and the broader policy review. Pyongyang is sure to be closely watching when Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, meet with top Chinese officials in Alaska on Thursday.

What’s happening now

Atlanta shooting suspect told investigators killings of six Asian women at three Atlanta-area spas weren't racially motivated. The attacks left eight people dead. Nonetheless, the killings spurred “spurring concern among advocates and police that the killings could be the latest in a surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans,” Timothy Bella and Keith McMillan report.

“Police arrested Robert Aaron Long, 21, after a brief manhunt and said he is the suspect in all three shootings. Authorities said Long took responsibility for the shootings and believe he acted alone. Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds suggested during a Wednesday news conferences that Long ‘frequented these places in the past and may have been lashing out.’” 

Biden was briefed overnight about the shootings, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “White House officials have been in touch with the Mayor’s office and will remain in touch with the FBI," Psaki said. Biden will be speak by phone this morning with Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, John Wagner reports. 

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) condemned the shootings, saying that, while a motive is still not clear, “a crime against any community is a crime against us all.” 

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Lunchtime reads from The Post

• “Ghislaine Maxwell’s tawdry fall from grace — and her new PR push,” by Manuel Roig-Franzia: “Maxwell’s third attempt to persuade a judge to release her before her trial has set in motion in the past few days an effort by her family to reshape her image, aided by publicists and a family attorney. Her brother, Ian Maxwell … [in an interview with The Post] compared his sister’s situation to that of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment and bullying. … ‘Cuomo is entitled to have an investigation of his actions, just as Ghislaine is entitled to have one of hers.’ Maxwell maintained that his sister is innocent, calling the case against her ‘flimsy.’”
• “Trump’s Florida resort touted as potential gambling destination,” Jonathan O’Connell and Josh Dawsey report: “Former president Donald Trump’s son Eric, who runs the family’s private company, touted the potential of transforming their Doral golf resort into a gambling destination amid a quiet push among Florida Republicans to legalize casinos in areas of the state that have long opposed them.” 

… and beyond

• “Food delivery couriers, street vendors launch hunger strike in NYC, demanding more relief for undocumented workers,” by the Counter’s Jessica Fu: “Strikers are petitioning Albany lawmakers to earmark $3.5 billion in funding for undocumented workers. These workers are otherwise ineligible for unemployment benefits and stimulus checks included in previous relief bills, including [Biden’s relief package].”
• “The covid queen of South Dakota,” by Rolling Stone’s Stephen Rodrick: “The fact that [Gov. Kristi] Noem has emerged from a public-health disaster smelling so sweet has baffled some political observers. Actually, her moves make sense if you know that Noem is running for president. … Noem’s rigged-election/masks-suck/own-the-libs persona meshes perfectly with the 2021 Republican Party built on the twin pillars of Stop the Steal. … Noem is Trumpism with a cowgirl face.” 
• “White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, report says,” by the AP’s Aaron Morrison: “White supremacist propaganda reached alarming levels across the U.S. in 2020, according to a new report that the Anti-Defamation League provided. … There were 5,125 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ and other hateful messages spread through physical flyers, stickers, banners and posters … That’s nearly double the 2,724 instances reported in 2019. Online propaganda is much harder to quantify, and it’s likely those cases reached into the millions.” 

At the table

This week we’re lunching with Jennifer Klein, co-chair and executive director of the White House Gender Policy Council. We talked about the council’s goals, its intersectionality and roadblocks women face worldwide. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Alfaro: How is President Biden’s new council, which was created through an executive order on International Women’s Day, different from President Barack Obama’s Council on Women and Girls?

Klein: I would say it’s an evolution. Number one is, you will note, that it’s called the Gender Policy Council instead of the Council on Women and Girls. That’s a way of making it clear that our commitment is not only to women and girls — although there is a particular focus on them because of the harms and discrimination they face around the world. Second, the Council on Women and Girls was located within the Office of Public Engagement. That’s not to say they didn’t do policy work, but the word “policy” in our title makes it really clear that we are going to be working explicitly on policy development. We’re coordinating directly with the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the National Security Council. Our council is outside of each of those because the issues we address are intersectional. 

Alfaro: Can you outline the council’s main goals? 

Klein: The main goal is really quite simple — to ensure that there’s a focus on both gender equity and gender equality in both domestic and foreign policy development. The council has a particular focus on people who face other forms of discrimination, including people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, indigenous people, people with disabilities. We are very focused on working on the intersection between race and gender. 

We will also focus on combating systemic bias and discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, and increasing economic security and opportunity by addressing the structural barriers to women's participation in the labor force. That’s always been a focus, but it is a particular need right now, as we are literally marking a year of covid-19, where women are contending with a public health crisis, an economic crisis and, as I like to say, on top of all of these challenges, a “caregiving crisis.” The pandemic has really exacerbated barriers that have held many women back, especially women of color. We’re seeing extremely low rates of women's labor force participation. We're back down to levels that we haven't seen since the late ‘80s. 

We also want to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and ensure access to comprehensive health care. And, finally, the council wants to advance gender equality globally, and that includes work through our diplomacy development, trade and defense, and, in particular, by recognizing the role and the particular needs of women and girls in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and development assistance. If you care about democracy and political stability, you need to care about women’s political participation. And if you care about preventing conflict, or ending conflict or extremism around the world, you need to care about women’s inclusion in peacebuilding and governance and keeping peace. 

Alfaro: I ask this because your background is in gender policy, and you have recently worked closely with the Time's Up movement, but do you feel like women are being handed the microphone more now, with the developments of the last few years? 

Klein: I think you’re exactly right. The movement existed long before Harvey Weinstein, these were issues that Tarana Burke has been talking about and working on for literally a decade before Me Too. That said, with what we all experienced once the movement was brought into public consciousness, is that there’s really no turning back. The spotlight was set on these issues — gender-based violence and sexual harassment in particular — that really opened many people’s eyes to a whole host of structural barriers that have held women back for far too long.

Alfaro: How do you think your familiarity with these issues, and your work history, affect your role in this council?

Klein: I moved to D.C. in 1993 to work with the then-first lady, Hillary Clinton, in her office. It was actually the first time the first lady’s office had a spot for someone working on policy. I took over the job from someone else who’d held the position first, but we were the first people who worked in the East Wing with a portfolio that involved policy. I worked on a whole host of issues which people back then referred to as “women’s issues.” The then-first lady and I referred to them as economic issues, or health issues, because they were things like medical leave and child care. I was able to collaborate closely on policy with colleagues in the Domestic Policy Council. Then I worked for four years in the Obama administration’s State Department, focusing on global women’s issues under Secretary Clinton. That’s where I really learned that gender equality issues cross borders and that it’s important to look at them globally. 

Alfaro: That’s not the first time I’ve heard these problems be referred to as “women’s issues,” when they actually intersect with other policy focuses. Why is it important to refer to these topics as more than just “women’s issues”? 

Klein: You don’t want them to be siloed. This is true of the issues, and of the structure of this council as well. All these issues are issues of human rights, of justice and of fairness, but they’re also critically important, strategically. If you care about reducing poverty or promoting economic growth, increasing access to education — really any outcomes that we seek — you care about these “women’s issues.” 

The first 100 days

Biden said Americans who make more than $400k will see a ‘small to significant tax increase.’

• “You make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax," Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
• Biden said he’ll “get Democratic votes for a tax increase," but acknowledged that he likely won't receive any Republican support.

The president also had a message for migrants: ‘Don’t come over.' 

• “We’re sending back people” who cross the Southern border, he said. When Stephanopoulos asked whether it was a mistake not to anticipate a larger number of migrants arriving at the border, Biden said there have been “surges” in the last two years, but acknowledged this one could be worse. 
• “Nearly 60 percent of the 19,246 ‘family units’ taken into custody at the southwestern border last month were allowed to stay in the United States to await an immigration hearing,” Maria Sacchetti reports. “[However] administration officials warned that they are continuing to expel thousands of migrants — including families — to nations such as Haiti and Mexico under Title 42, a public-health order the Trump administration issued in March 2020.”
• Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is scheduled to testify before the House Homeland Security panel this morning, “said the public-health order remains in place, except for children and teens traveling without their parents,” Sacchetti reports.
• The administration is “expecting more apprehensions at the border this year than at any point in the past two decades,” the New York Times reports. “The president has pleaded for time and patience, blaming his predecessor for dismantling the immigration system in his zeal to keep foreigners out. But even [Biden’s] top advisers acknowledge that after unwinding [Trump’s] harsh policies, there is no easy or quick fix for a problem that has been a recurring crisis.”
• “The Biden administration is restricting the information Border Patrol agents and sector chiefs can share with the media,” current and former CBP officials told NBC News’s Julia Ainsley. “The officials say the restrictions are seen as an unofficial ‘gag order.'"

Biden said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) should resign if an investigation confirms he committed sexual harassment. 

• Biden had, so far, avoided backing an end to Cuomo’s governorship, but, in a portion of the same ABC interview aired last night, he said “there should be an investigation to determine whether what she says is true.”
• The New York State Assembly hired an independent law firm to carry out an impeachment investigation into Cuomo, Bloomberg News reports. This investigation, which will examine the sexual harassment allegations as well as claims the Cuomo administration tried to cover up nursing home deaths, is separate from the sexual harassment investigation led by lawyers appointed by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James.

Biden lamented the role politics is playing in the U.S. vaccination effort. 

• “I don’t quite understand — you know — I just don’t understand this sort of macho thing about, ‘I’m not gonna get the vaccine. I have a right as an American, my freedom to not do it.’ Well, why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people,” he told Stephanopoulos.

Quote of the day

“I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it — and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” Trump told Fox News, encouraging viewers to get the coronavirus vaccine. “It’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.” 

“But, you know, again, we have our freedoms, and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also,” he added.

Bring back the talking filibuster, says Biden. 

• “That's what it was supposed to be," Biden told Stephanopoulos. “Democracy's having a hard time functioning.”
• "I don't think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days," Biden said. "You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking."
• Our colleagues Jackie Alemany and Tobi Raji have an excellent breakdown of where we are with the filibuster in this morning’s Power Up newsletter. They report that only a fifth of Senate Democrats support ending it, despite clear momentum among progressives.

There's still a bear in the woods

Vladimir Putin targeted people close to Trump in bid to influence the 2020 election, intelligence says

• The report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that the Russian president and other Moscow officials tried to influence the election “by spreading misleading information about Biden through prominent individuals, some of whom were close to [Trump],” Ellen Nakashima reports. “The report does not identify those individuals by name, but it appears to reference Trump’s onetime personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.”
• “Both Russia and Iran sought to influence the election,” Nakashima reports, “But a third major adversary, China, did not try, it says, contradicting the Trump administration’s assertions about Beijing’s activity last year.”
• “The declassified document, the first U.S. government report on the matter since November’s election, said that no foreign government attempted to change votes or alter results — supporting U.S. officials’ earlier assessments.”

Biden had thoughts on Putin during his ABC News interview:

Hot on the left

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) future could depend on her husband’s potential posting overseas. Richard Blum, the California Democrat’s husband, has indicated to Biden’s advisers he’s “interested in being appointed to an ambassadorship … [and is] eyeing a European capital, a posting that could pave the way for the 87-year-old Ms. Feinstein to leave the Senate,” the New York Times’s Jonathan Martin reports. 

“[This] could solve an increasingly awkward problem for Democrats. Senior party officials have been blunt in private about what they describe as the senator’s diminished acuity and are eager to replace her with a Black woman. … [But] on Tuesday, Feinstein was emphatic that she would serve the remainder of her term, which lasts until 2025, and brushed aside questions about her fitness.” 

Hot on the right

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Sen. Rick Scott’s (R) call to return economic stimulus money “doesn’t make any sense.” “If Florida were to send the money back, [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen is going to send it to Illinois, California, New York or New Jersey. I don’t think that would make sense for Floridians — for us to be giving even more money to the blue states that already getting such a big windfall in this bill,” DeSantis said, per Politico. 

Scott, who voted against the relief package, called the legislation “wasteful” on Monday and urged local and state governments to send back any money that is not spent directly on coronavirus-related expenses. 

Removal of Confederate monuments, visualized

More than 140 Confederate monuments have been removed from public land since the Charleston, S.C., church shooting in 2015, and about two-thirds of those came down in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death on May 25, Bonnie Berkowitz and Adrian Blanco report.

Today in Washington

Biden will meet Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin for the annual “Friends of Ireland” luncheon today at 1 p.m. This year, though, the tradition will be held virtually. Vice President Harris met Martin earlier this morning. She will host a virtual meeting with First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill of the Northern Ireland Executive today at 2:30 p.m. 

Harris will swear in Michael Regan as EPA administrator today at 4 p.m.  

In closing

Biden said first dog Major will come back to the White House, saying 85 percent of people there love him: 

Stephen Colbert took a look at Senate Minority Leader's Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) love for the filibuster: