Summit Interruptus

Posted by on Apr 6, 2019 in Articles, Featured, Korea | 0 comments Of all the bizarre things that Donald Trump utters — the lies, the garbled words, the fanciful stories — his comments on his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are in a category by themselves. “I was really tough and so was he, and we went back and forth,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in West Virginia in September. “And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote...
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The Next US-North Korean Summit

Posted by on Apr 4, 2019 in Articles, Featured, Korea | 0 comments The second meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un is scheduled for next month. The most likely location will be Vietnam. The agenda is much the same as before: how to get North Korea to denuclearize and the United States to dismantle its sanctions regime. The question remains: which side will make the first substantial move? The summit comes at a particular difficult time for Trump. The...
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Is Korea’s Cold War About to End?

Posted by on Jan 7, 2019 in Articles, Featured, Korea | 0 comments Remarkable changes are taking place on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas are actually starting to demilitarize the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Just in the last couple weeks, they have taken down 22 guard posts, demined the Joint Security Area, and established a no-fly-zone about the peninsula’s dividing line. They’ve pulled back from confrontation along their maritime boundary. North Korea...
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North Korea: Nukes vs. War?

Posted by on Jan 4, 2019 in Articles, Featured, Korea, Security | 0 comments Nuclear weapons have held the world hostage for more than 70 years. Although they possess terrifying power and the world has come close to nuclear war on several occasions, these weapons have only been used twice, in 1945, by the United States against Japan. Advocates of deterrence believe that nuclear weapons actually kept the peace during the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union,...
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Trump’s Next Move on North Korea

Posted by on Aug 12, 2018 in Articles, Featured, Korea | 0 comments Donald Trump loves to talk about war. Last year, Trump was ready to invade Venezuela, until calmer heads in his inner circle persuaded him that it wasn’t a good idea. He has recently escalated his threats against Iran, and his secretary of state has explicitly endorsed regime change there. After his meeting with NATO leaders, he even broached the subject of a World War III started by the...
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What’s Next with North Korea?

Posted by on Aug 9, 2018 in Articles, Featured, Korea | 0 comments The Trump administration wants North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons by 2020 after which it would get sanctions relief. Pyongyang insists on a phased and synchronized approach with incentives and concessions along the way. On paper, these are not entirely incompatible approaches. In reality, however, nuclear weapons occupy too important a place in North Korea’s national security – as...
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