SABER RATTLING
So much for Trump's diplomacy. Kim sees the key to keeping his nuclear weapons and winning sanctions relief as more nukes, better missiles, and thus more leverage.
Ankit Panda is a writer, analyst, and researcher focusing on international security, geopolitics, and economics. His work has appeared in a range of publications across the world, including the Diplomat, the Atlantic, the Washington Quarterly, Al Jazeera, Politico magazine, and War on the Rocks. He is currently a senior editor at the Diplomat, where he writes daily on security, geopolitics, and economics in the Asia-Pacific region and hosts a popular podcast. He is additionally a columnist for the South China Morning Post and a consultant for a range of private and public organizations on Asia-Pacific issues. Panda is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He lives in New York City.
FIREWORKS
When confidence building doesn’t work, a bit of confidence busting is in order. That’s now happening on both sides. Kim is showing his patience is limited. And so is Trump.
NUCLEAR NUANCE
The difference between a rocket launching a satellite and a missile with a warhead? Not so much. But North Korea has played with that distinction before and may do so again.
exclusive
BAIT-AND-SWITCH
The Russians hyped a cruise missile launch earlier this year. But a briefing by the CIA and a second agency determined that it was essentially a hoax.
TENSE CALM
Kim Jong Un’s vision of the future is economic development under the protection of his own nuclear umbrella. Trump’s not going to change that, and had better learn to work with it.
ROCKET MAN
On Sunday, North Korea is expected to parade its greatest military assets: the missiles it could use to attack the U.S. with nuclear warheads.
HIT OR MISSILE
By dismantling a missile engine test site, the North Koreans are giving up something that they no longer need and something that can be quickly and relatively easily reconstituted.
EXPLOSIVE
Trump doesn’t know that Kim isn’t going to give up his nukes—and that could blow everything up. Literally.
opinion
REVIEWS ARE IN
The only language on ‘denuclearization’ the two sides agreed on in their joint statement was complete pablum, and it puts the future relationship with South Korea in doubt.
HAWK
The collapse of the North Korean summit suggests that John Bolton’s influence is on the rise inside the White House.