Now that Donald Trump has officially been coronated as the Republican nominee for president and that Hillary Clinton would have received her party’s blessings for the same office by the time this column is published, debate will heat up in South Korea over the future of inter-Korean relations.

For more than twenty years, each time there has been a change in leadership in Washington, North Korea policy was usually put in the backseat as newly elected American presidents had other more pressing concerns. And when they finally got around to revisiting their North Korea policies various new approaches were attempted, only for all of them to fail and force everyone back to reality to face the fact there are no good options in dealing with North Korea.