A U.S. expert on Asia has forecast that the incoming Joe Biden administration will support the Moon Jae-in administration’s appeasement policy vis-à-vis North Korea. 

Frank Jannuzi, head of the Mansfield Foundation, shared his outlook on Friday at an online forum hosted by the Seoul-based Peace Foundation. 

He said Biden will clarify that neither the U.S. nor China, but the two Koreas, will take center stage when it comes to Korean peninsula-related issues, adding that the U.S. president-elect will support Seoul exercising more flexibility in resolving difficulties in relations with Pyongyang. 

Jannuzi, who was an Asia adviser to Biden when the president-elect was the head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden is well aware that peace and security of the peninsula should be achieved through inclusivity. 

Noting that no coercion or oppression will bring peace and reconciliation to the region, Jannuzi said Washington’s North Korea policy failed partly because it was too immersed in the North Korean nuclear issue and downplayed humane aspects of matters.