Donald Trump's first ten months have been whirlwind for North Korea watchers. From "fire and fury" to "maybe someday he will be my friend", it's been an unusual time to have an eye on how the world's most powerful nation deals with Pyongyang, especially as the DPRK's missile and nuclear program grows closer and closer to completion.

It's been a shock in Washington DC, too, and the first few months of the administration were chaotic. Amid the jostling for the newly-vacated positions in the foreign policy world, Patrick Cronin, longtime Senior Director at the ‎Center for a New American Security (CNAS), was swept up in something of a political firestorm: in line for a "plum" job (the words of the Washington Times) at a Pentagon-linked think tank, he was outed as a "never-Trumper."