North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and U.S. President Joe Biden / Korea Times photo

By Kang Seung-woo

The North Korean nuclear issue appears to have lost priority with the U.S. government, which is focusing heavily on ending China's control of global supply chains, cross-strait relations and other issues.

As Washington shows signs of preserving the status quo with the Kim Jong-un regime, which has in recent years refrained from testing nuclear and long-range missiles, the issue, described as "unproductive," is feared by some to remain shelved.

In April, after its months-long policy review of the totalitarian state, the Joe Biden administration came up with a "calibrated practical approach" to North Korea's decades-long nuclear problem. However, combined with Pyongyang's nonresponse to U.S. overtures and U.S. refusals to offer enticements to engage the reclusive state, negotiations on denuclearizing the North have made little progress.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted, Friday (local time), that the U.S. "had not gotten traction in diplomacy with North Korea on that over the course of this year."

"The North Korean nuclear issue was already low on Biden's agenda as the Kim regime has remained unresponsive to U.S. calls to return to the negotiating table," said Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. "The only way to bring North Korea back to the bargaining table is by the U.S. making concessions to the North, which is not going to happen in consideration of the current U.S. stance."

The U.S. has repeated its position that it has no hostile policy toward North Korea and is willing to resume dialogue without preconditions.

"Due to these reasons, the North Korea issue has been pushed back on the priority list," Shin added.

While the North Korea issue is in a stalemate, the U.S. is bent on rallying its allies and friendly countries to move supply chains away from China, including the semiconductor industry, well-illustrated by a senior U.S. official who urged South Korea's participation in its campaign last week.

"Semiconductor shortages that were caused by COVID-19 ... put a spotlight on Korea as a leader and an essential partner in global semiconductor supply chains," Jose Fernandez, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, said during a meeting with Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon in Seoul, Friday.

"We firmly believe Korea has much more to offer to the global economy. You've got world-class technical expertise, high-quality transparent investment and foreign legislation and more."

According to a press statement by the U.S. State Department, the two sides agreed to bolster resilience, and secure supply chains for critical products such as semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, health-related supplies and critical minerals.

In addition, the Biden administration's first sanctions on North Korea for its human rights abuses, Dec. 10, also indicate the nuclear issue is not an urgent priority for the U.S.

Since President Moon Jae-in's revived his proposal to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War in September at the United Nations, Seoul and Washington have discussed the issue, believing that the declaration would jump-start stalled nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

However, the current situation is not anticipated to help the end-of-war declaration.

"The end-of-war issue could make progress when the U.S. and North Korea are engaged in negotiations, where they could exchange what they want, but that seems to have gone out the window with no developments in talks," Shin said.