What the US Thinks It Learned About Kim Jong Un

Dialogue with North Korea can deepen mutual understanding – or mutual mistrust.

If Americans have learned anything from brinkmanship and summitry with North Korea these past few years, it should be that familiarity can clarify not only differences, but also what remains unknown. Dialogue may deepen mutual understanding or mutual distrust – sometimes both.
When senior Trump administration officials met in late July to assess the aftermath of the Singapore summit, Bolton agreed with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who «was emphatic that North Korea had made no significant steps toward denuclearization and that there was ‘zero probability of success.’»

The president should have insisted on concrete results at lower levels of dialogue before convening a second summit. Kim’s effort to shift blame for the breakdown of negotiations ignores the fact that throughout the negotiation process, the North Korean leader refused to offer any meaningful concessions that would freeze his nuclear program, regardless of the offers put forward by the U.S.

This article was written by Dr. Patrick M. Cronin 

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