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

Olivia Enos

Security, Asia

"It’s time to institute a diplomatic strategy that recognizes the linkages between promoting human rights and making progress on denuclearization."

The second summit did not go the direction many expected. The lack of progress made in Hanoi—and Singapore, for that matter—present an opportunity to reset U.S. policy toward North Korea.

If the U.S. learned anything from the latest summit, it’s that North Korea desperately seeks sanctions removal. In a press conference after the inconclusive end to the summit, the North Koreans said that they sought sanctions removal for humanitarian reasons. Frankly speaking, care for the North Korean people is the furthest thing from Kim Jong-un’s mind, particularly considering that he imprisons between 80,000 to 120,000 individuals in modern-day gulags.

Instead, these statements reveal that maximum pressure is the one aspect of the Trump administration’s policy toward North Korea that worked. Sanctions pressure is not only partially responsible for bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, but it is also responsible for putting the squeeze on the regime’s viability and development of its weapons programs.

Early indicators suggest that the administration is considering a return to maximum pressure in the wake of failed diplomatic efforts. This is the right move, as was Washington’s rejection of Pyongyang’s disingenuous request for essentially complete sanctions relief in exchange for incomplete denuclearization in Hanoi.