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

Lyle J. Goldstein

Security, Asia

"Beijing and America should work to develop some new and innovative “economic carrots” that can entice Kim Jong-un without undermining the whole sanctions regime."

The answer to why the Hanoi Summit was a failure is no particular mystery. If one wanted to truly defuse this most dangerous situation, one would want to send experienced diplomats, preferably ones who had brokered extremely challenging international deals in the past. These emissaries, moreover, should have possessed the qualities of patience, foresight, historical and cultural sensitivity, as well as flexibility and creativity. Regrettably, that was not the team that traveled to Hanoi. Of course, the American people also would have been better served by meticulous preparations for such an important historical event. Yet, American leaders seemed to spend much more time on Venezuela than the North Korea issue during the month prior to the Hanoi Summit. That error appears to comport with the increasingly conventional U.S. political malady in which leaders focus much more on the next election than on executing pragmatic and sensible foreign policy.