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President Lee proposes three-step denuclearization plan for North Korea

Published: 22 Aug. 2025, 00:02

President Lee Jae Myung greets Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during a luncheon meeting with senior advisers of the Democratic Party at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Aug. 21. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Lee Jae Myung, ahead of the Korea-Japan summit, laid out a “three-step denuclearization plan” in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri for the first time as his solution to the North Korean nuclear threat. The new government set its North Korea policy goal as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, with a road map that envisions freezing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs as the first step, reducing them as the second and reaching complete denuclearization as the third. While the phased approach reflects a realistic acknowledgment that immediate, total denuclearization is not feasible, concerns arise that it could inadvertently legitimize North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has repeatedly declared he has no intention of giving up nuclear weapons and instead has been accelerating their miniaturization and diversification. In this situation, a sweeping “big deal” that exchanges complete denuclearization for regime security is virtually impossible. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, China and Russia have broken ranks with the international community on sanctions, making it even harder to pressure Pyongyang toward denuclearization. Lee’s three-step proposal clearly takes such realities into account.

The problem is that the phased plan closely resembles the “small deal” Kim offered during the 2019 U.S-North Korea summit in Hanoi. At the time, the Moon Jae-in administration maintained that “nuclear freeze is the entrance to dialogue, and the exit is complete denuclearization.” Lee’s road map, however, is bound to face criticism for retreating from the principle of CVID — complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization — that successive governments have upheld.

Experts estimate that North Korea already possesses more than 50 nuclear weapons and has the material to produce up to 90 warheads. In such circumstances, if negotiations start with a freeze — halting further nuclear tests, production of fissile material and expansion of facilities — Pyongyang will almost certainly demand sanctions relief in return. That would leave its nuclear arsenal intact while lifting the sanctions, the worst possible scenario for Seoul.

In the interview, Lee said, “In close cooperation with the United States, we will create the conditions to move from freeze to reduction to dismantlement.” At the Korea-Japan summit on Saturday and the Korea-U.S. summit on Monday, Lee is expected to hold in-depth discussions with the leaders of Japan and the United States. It is particularly important to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump — who has referred to North Korea as a “nuclear power” — not to implicitly recognize Pyongyang’s nuclear status or allow future North-U.S. talks to shift directly into a nuclear arms reduction framework that the North desires.

North Korea refuses to recognize South Korea as a negotiating partner. Still, Seoul cannot remain idle. The government must use multiple diplomatic channels and trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo to bring Pyongyang back to the table and find a path toward genuine denuclearization.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.