Why North Korean denuclearization will likely take backseat in second Trump term | NK News
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December 22, 2024
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Why North Korean denuclearization will likely take backseat in second Trump term

Former US officials say DPRK is no longer Trump’s ‘most urgent problem,’ though rapport with Kim Jong Un may spur talks
Chad O'Carroll | Shreyas Reddy November 8, 2024
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Why North Korean denuclearization will likely take backseat in second Trump term
Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump shaking hands, with North Korea's Hwasong-19 missile in the background | Image: Trump White House Archived via Flickr (June 30, 2019) and Rodong Sinmun (Nov. 1, 2024), edited by NK News

Donald Trump’s election victory has sparked speculation about whether he will renew diplomacy with North Korea, but former U.S. officials say a fundamentally different global situation means we’re unlikely to see a repeat of the 2018-2019 summitry.

During Trump’s first term, Washington’s engagement with Pyongyang was marked by extreme highs and lows, as the two sides moved from trading insults like “dotard” and “rocket man” to a series of high-profile summits, before fizzling into non-engagement.

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About the Authors

Chad O'Carroll

Chad O'Carroll

Chad O'Carroll is the founder of NK News/NK Pro and related holding company Korea Risk Group. In addition to being the group's CEO, O'Carroll is a frequent writer and commentator about the Koreas, having written about the two nations since 2010. He has visited the DPRK multiple times, worked and lived in Washington, D.C. with a focus on peninsula issues, and lived in the ROK since 2016.

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Shreyas Reddy

Shreyas Reddy

Shreyas Reddy is a correspondent at NK News, based in Seoul. He previously worked as a researcher at BBC Monitoring, where his work focused on news and key people and organizations from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Follow him on Twitter.

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