openpolitics.com

Meeting of the Minds

By all accounts, the obstacles to an agreement are formidable. After nearly a quarter of a century of the U.S. resorting to a combination of carrots and sticks to deter the North from developing a nuclear bomb—to no avail—the effort to turn back the clock on its weapons program is entering a new, unpredictable period. A critical question in any high-level discussions will be what North Korea and the U.S. mean when they talk about denuclearization. The North might define it as a long-term goal that would be achieved only after the U.S. withdraws troops from the South and effectively ends the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.