Key Takeaways:- North Korea’s policy evolution demonstrates how favorable external conditions — improved relations with China and deepening ties with Russia, and increased leverage with both amid great-power competition — have emboldened Kim to take a series of bold policy moves.- In the near term, Seoul should prioritize managing the North Korean threat; over the long term, however, it should craft policies fo...

Key Takeaways:- Shortly after Kim Jong Un's summit with Putin in September 2023, North Korea essentially ‘closed the door’ on meaningful ties with Seoul.- North Korea’s economic dependence on inflows of various kinds from Russia renders it vulnerable to possible changes.- The immediate task for the ROK should be simply to ensure it does not inadvertently jeopardize its own interests by clinging to a model of in...

Key Takeaways:- President Lee’s E.N.D. policy repackages familiar progressive sequencing—exchange, normalization, then denuclearization—but does little to reflect how fundamentally North Korea’s posture has changed since 2019. - Pyongyang no longer accepts denuclearization as a negotiating horizon and has redefined inter-Korean relations in ways that old formulas and new slogans cannot reverse. ...

Key Takeaways:- Trump’s potential 2026 meeting with Kim Jong Un—either en route from Beijing in April or at the Shenzhen APEC Summit—could reopen diplomatic space after a year of stalled U.S.–DPRK engagement and rising North Korean alignment with Russia and China.- Although denuclearization is off the table, Trump could still pursue a historic peace declaration among the Korean War belligerents, creating a fr...

Key Summary:- The Lee Jae Myung administration’s North Korea policy, centered on the “Exchange, Normalization, and Denuclearization” (E.N.D.) Initiative, seeks a pragmatic return to dialogue and peaceful coexistence. - While the initiative attempts to break the cycle of failed denuclearization-first talks by prioritizing low-level engagement, the current geopolitical environment and North Korea’s – dra...