North Korea Closes the Door on New Negotiations

We are seeing the consequences of Trump’s failed “maximum pressure” policy against North Korea.

Kim Jong-un appears to rule out new negotiations with the incoming administration:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to rebuff the prospect of reviving his nuclear diplomacy with President-elect Donald Trump, according to his first public remarks about disarmament talks since the election.

North Korea’s state media reported Friday that the 40-year-old dictator called the U.S. a superpower that operated by force rather than a will to coexist and belittled the value that previous talks had for his cash-strapped regime.   

“We have already explored every possible avenue in negotiating with the U.S.,” Kim was quoted as saying during a speech at a defense expo in the capital Pyongyang on Thursday. What has become clear, he added, is the U.S.’s “unchanging aggressive and hostile policy” toward North Korea. 

North Korea doesn’t have much incentive to enter into new talks with the United States. Even if Trump were prepared to be more accommodating and flexible this time, Kim remembers how the U.S. insisted on maximalist demands and expected North Korean disarmament as the price for any sanctions relief. The U.S. approached the negotiations as if it were working out the details for North Korea’s capitulation, and that was never going to be acceptable to the other side. Inept pseudo-engagement run by hawks predictably led nowhere.