Don’t count on a Democratic president to be any tougher on North Korea than a Republican. That message comes through loud and clear from the Democratic Party platform. Like that of the Republicans, it fails to demand North Korea give up its nuclear program.

Sure, as one of South Korea’s  most influential newspapers, JoongAng Ilbo, notes, “The 92-page platform stressed the Democratic Party’s will to defend U.S. allies, including South Korea,” but wonders “why the Democratic Party excluded sensitive issues like the denuclearization of North Korea and its miserable human rights conditions.”

The paper’s rival, Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s biggest-selling paper, reports “the removal of this key term” — denuclearization — “has raised worries that the international community, particularly the U.S., might be less committed to the principle of ‘complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.’” This, says the paper, “is particularly concerning as it comes at a time when North Korea continues to refuse dialogue while ramping up its nuclear capabilities and increasing provocations.”

No, “the removal of ‘denuclearization’ in the party platforms doesn’t exactly mean that the U.S. government recognizes North Korea as a nuclear state,” says Chosun Ilbo, “but it does suggest that both major U.S. political parties increasingly see denuclearization as a goal that is very difficult to achieve.” Some “even view this as a declining interest in negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program.”

The omission of denuclearization raised the whole question of where the Democratic candidate, Vice President Harris, really stands on foreign policy. It’s assumed she would follow in the footsteps of President Biden, but she has so far refrained from definitive statements. She did stress the need to stand firm against the North when she visited South Korea nearly two years ago but accidentally referred to “the United States alliance with North Korea” at the Demilitarized Zone separating North from South.

The Democratic platform had no problem blaming Mr. Trump for all that has gone wrong vis-a-vis North Korea since his notorious summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un at Singapore in June 2018, but the sense at Seoul is that no one can be confident where Ms. Harris stands at heart. 

South Korean officials anxiously fall back on unconvincing clichés about the future of the alliance. A foreign ministry spokesman, refusing to see any change in relations between Washington and Seoul, said the South would “continue to make efforts for North Korea’s denuclearization through the approach of ‘deterrence, dissuasion and diplomatic dialogue,’” the South’s Yonhap News reported.

Another official brushed off the Democratic platform, saying it would  “take shape based on the consultations the U.S. will have with major countries after the election.”

The Korea Times quoted an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, Cho Han-bum, as describing “denuclearization” as “a rhetorical stance in the U.S. not just among Republicans but also Democrats.” After the elections, he predicted, “We may see Washington shift toward disarmament negotiations to break the stalemate.” 

JoongAng Ilbo said the Democrats “skipped denuclearization” in line with “the Republican Party’s omission of the issue in its party platform last month. “ Now, it said, the question is whether this omission “resulted from a lack of interest among U.S. voters or from their fatigue about the nuclear conundrum.”