Victor Cha says Trump's contrasting approaches to Iran, North Korea nuclear issues are rational

Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Wednesday that Donald Trump's differing approaches to the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea follow their own internal logic.

Writing in The Washington Post, Cha argued that Trump has taken a principled stance against Iran ever acquiring nuclear weapons while pursuing a pragmatic, negotiation-based approach toward North Korea — and that dismissing this as a simple "double standard" is unfair.

"President Trump is taking diametrically opposite paths on the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea," Cha wrote. On Iran, he added, Trump's position is that nuclear weapons are absolutely off the table.

On North Korea, by contrast, Cha said Trump "is taking a pragmatic and accommodating approach to managing a nuclear-armed North Korea."

His argument is that the two countries' nuclear programs differ so significantly in capability and stage of development that applying different approaches is entirely reasonable.

Cha noted that Iran's nuclear program had been in its early stages and its facilities were known locations, making them viable targets for a preemptive strike.

North Korea, by contrast, possesses approximately 60 nuclear weapons along with enough fissile material to build 30 more, and has developed a diverse range of delivery systems — making the application of "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" (CVID) deeply impractical, he said.

Cha also noted that while international support for economic sanctions against Iran remains relatively strong, UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea have been rendered in effect useless, given Chinese and Russian support for Pyongyang.

On the approaches of neighboring countries, Cha said South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who leans progressive, does not want military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and welcomes Trump's diplomacy toward North Korea, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for CVID to be demanded of Iran.

Cha said one more factor further complicates the inconsistency in nonproliferation policy toward North Korea and Iran: the two countries share a history of missile cooperation and are learning from each other even as they each navigate different US policies.

The US strike on Iran, he said, likely deepened North Korea's conviction in the value of its nuclear weapons — and Iran may now reach out to North Korea for help rebuilding its nuclear program.

Cha has previously said that denuclearization should remain a long-term goal, but that the reality of the North Korean nuclear threat must be acknowledged and that Washington should pursue arms control and nonproliferation negotiations with Pyongyang. North Korea has maintained that as long as it possesses nuclear weapons, denuclearization is not a subject for negotiation.