Stephen W. Bosworth, the former U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Policy and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, said today that North Korea policy should change direction, with a new focus emphasizing regional stability as the immediate goal.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Seoul as a private citizen, Bosworth explained that after upcoming elections in the United States and South Korea there should be a cautious study of how Pyongyang policy should be formulated. “North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles has presented a serious threat to the policy of deterrence,” Bosworth said. And he pointed out that “formal diplomacy with regard to North Korea among the U.S. and countries in the Northeast Asia region has come to an abrupt halt after Pyongyang’s failed missile test in mid-April in violation of an agreement it had reached with the U.S. just weeks before on February 29th.”