Vice President Kamala Harris Published President Trump promised on the policy page of his official website on Sunday that he would be “ready to be commander in chief on day one,” but pointed to one of his most infamous foreign policy gaffes – his claim that the United States is a “strong alliance” with North Korea – as evidence.
Seven weeks after taking over from former President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris' presidential campaign released a page outlining her positions on policy issues in some detail. The page focuses on Harris' experience as a prosecutor and attorney general in California, but also includes a limited explanation of where she stands on international issues.
“Vice President Harris is prepared to be commander in chief from day one,” her campaign said. “Vice President Harris has been an energetic and effective diplomat on the world stage.”
A prime example listed on the “Issues” page is Biden's visit to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in September 2022, where he sought to reassure the new administration of conservative South Korean President Yoon Seok-yol of his commitment to supporting the administration against the persistent threat of nuclear-armed North Korea. Biden has not made the Korean peninsula a foreign policy priority during his presidency, during which communist dictator Kim Jong-un significantly expanded his international influence through expanding alliances with Russia and Iran.
“Harris met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, vowed to always defend American interests in the face of the Chinese threat, and made four visits to the Indo-Pacific region to advance economic and security partnerships,” her policy page states.
“She visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to South Korea in the face of the threat from North Korea,” the article continued, before noting that President Donald Trump could not return to the White House because it was too “dangerous” on foreign policy.
“From advising on difficult decisions in the Oval Office and Situation Room to serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and pursuing international criminal organizations as California's Attorney General, Vice President Harris has extensive national security experience,” the page concludes.
The page did not provide any details about Harris' visit to the DMZ. Harris will visit the inter-Korean border in 2022 and deliver a speech aimed at reiterating how “strong” Biden considers the relationship between Washington and Seoul. But Harris mistakenly described North Korea as a U.S. partner at the start of her speech.
“The United States shares a very important alliance with North Korea, and it is a strong and enduring alliance,” Harris said. Declared.
Harris appears to have misspoken. There is no “Republic of North Korea.” South Korea's official name is the Republic of Korea, but North Korea calls itself the “Democratic Republic of Korea.” Harris referred to the “Republic of Korea” in subsequent comments.
“I cannot emphasize enough that the United States' commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea is unwavering, and we intend to do everything in our power to make that commitment meaningful in every sense of the word,” Harris said at the time.
“The shared goal of the United States and South Korea is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the vice president said. The Democratic Party removed “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” from its official policy platform in August.
Apart from the DMZ visit, Harris played a small role in Biden's Korea policy. Early in his presidency, Biden hosted then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington, where Moon also met with Kamala Harris. The meeting drew attention in China, where state media reported footage of the vice president wiping his hands on his clothes after shaking hands with Moon, a move that was described as a sign of “disrespect” and “discrimination.”
Relations with the Yoon administration have been more cautious than with the left-leaning Moon administration. Yoon has abandoned Moon's conciliatory approach to North Korea, but Biden administration diplomats have felt that they prefer dialogue, which has led him to openly speculate that South Korea may “possess its own nuclear weapons” if it feels it is not receiving sufficient protection from its biggest ally. Nuclear weapons development is popular in South Korea. June 2024 opinion poll Found Fifty-five percent of South Koreans “support or strongly support” North Korea having its own nuclear weapons program unless it denuclearizes.
Despite her limited and somewhat embarrassing Korea policy portfolio, Harris has touted it as one of her foreign policy strengths. In her August speech at the Democratic National Convention, she made the unsubstantiated claim that Kim Jong Un was “rooting for Trump to win the election” and promised to “stay away from tyrants and dictators.”
In reality, the Kim regime's official flagship propaganda agency, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), has repeatedly called Trump a “smelly old man” and a “madman.” In July, KCNA announced that “we don't care” about the 2024 presidential election.
