A former U.S. official on North Korea is suggesting that the nuclear issue in the communist state be resolved while North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is still in power.

Joel Wit, a former U.S. State Department official and a current research scholar at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, is scheduled to release a report at a forum on U.S. policies on North Korea. The Thursday forum is hosted by the U.S.-Korea Institute at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

In an advanced copy of the report, Wit said Kim Jong-il’s successor will have much less political authority than Kim and so the U.S. must take advantage of the opportunity now when Kim is in complete control and before the North produces more nuclear weapons.

He said the North’s nuclear development is not rooted in Kim’s health concerns or internal chaos over a power transition, but that it believes it must rely on nuclear weapons for regime security.

He added that the North must gain trust that denuclearization will enhance relations with the U.S.