Evans J.R. Revere
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies
Evans J.R. Revere is senior advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group. From 2007-2010, Revere served as president and CEO of The Korea Society.
Fluent in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, Revere retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 after a distinguished career as one of the U.S. Department of State's top Asia experts. He won numerous awards during his career, which included service as the principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and deputy chief of mission and charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. Revere has extensive experience in negotiations with North Korea.
Revere graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in East Asian Studies. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Evans J.R. Revere is senior advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group. From 2007-2010, Revere served as president and CEO of The Korea Society.
Fluent in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, Revere retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 after a distinguished career as one of the U.S. Department of State’s top Asia experts. He won numerous awards during his career, which included service as the principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. Revere has extensive experience in negotiations with North Korea.
Revere graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in East Asian Studies. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
[In response to North Korea's latest missile launches.] Nothing we say or do is going to affect Pyongyang’s game plan. The most important thing to do now is to ramp up the diplomatic, economic, and military pressure and ensure that North Korea pays a major price for its actions.
Under President-elect Yoon's [administration], the United States and South Korea are likely to find themselves on the same page more often than in the recent past on a range of issues including the best strategy for dealing with North Korea.
It’s also worth remembering that North Korea’s practice of seizing, imprisoning and, in one case, probably torturing Americans represents reprehensible behavior that says something about the nature of the regime. I would not give Pyongyang too much credit for undoing something it shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.
Global China: Assessing China’s role in East Asia
As we try to determine whether North Korea is serious about moving in a positive and productive direction, it is also fair to ask whether the North Korean leader may be coming to the table out of sense of vulnerability.
Perhaps fortune will smile on us this time. Over the years, though, when we were tested with the North's sincerity regarding denuclearization, Pyongyang disappointed us. Perhaps this time, North Korea will finally pass the test.
[The inter-Korean summit was a success] from the perspective of its optics, pageantry, and preparation. The Joint Declaration is largely a compilation of past bilateral agreements between Seoul and Pyongyang dating all the way back to 1972, virtually all of which ended up in failure. And [Donald] Trump's breathlessly positive response to the summit suggests he could fall into a North Korean trap at a US-DPRK summit if the North Koreans offer him even a minor concession. Kim Jong Un's skills as a tactician and a negotiator were on full display at the Panmunjom summit. Let's hope that President Trump's advisers are preparing him particularly well for his meeting with Kim. He's about to meet a real pro.
[North Koreans define denuclearization as] the elimination of the 'threat' posed by the U.S.-South Korea alliance, by U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula, and by the U.S. nuclear umbrella that defends South Korea and Japan. [North Korean interlocutors have said they will] consider denuclearization in 10-20 years' time if Pyongyang feels 'secure.'