The Hanoi Summit – We Asked Devin Stewart What Happens Next in U.S.-North Korea Relations

Devin Stewart

Security, Asia

"The key to broadening the range of possibilities in U.S.-North Korean relations is adjusting the frame in which it is viewed."

Everyone, including Kim Jong-un, was surprised the Hanoi summit produced no deal. How could have we have foreseen the Michael Cohen testimony hindering Trump’s ability to negotiate?

Recent evidence suggests Trump may be pivoting toward a harder, maximalist approach. An incremental one, however, is probably more realistic: The two parties can revisit the chips they were considering bargaining, including a statement ending the Korean War, suspending some sanctions, closing down Yongbyon, and establishing liaison offices in Pyongyang and Washington, DC.

The key to broadening the range of possibilities in U.S.-North Korean relations is adjusting the frame in which it is viewed. I’ve counted at least a dozen fallacies that continue to fog up and harden the analysis on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) among pundits. Here are four.

1. A narrative arc with a cinematic ending. Critics are wrongly expecting a dramatic ending to the Washington-Pyongyang talks like Stalin, Churchill, and Truman at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 or Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall in 1989. Contrary to the way we imagine it, history doesn’t resemble the movies. Rather, talks with the DPRK will proceed like all negotiations: a series of messy steps that no one will ever be completely happy with.