Throughout 2022, a dramatic increase in North Korean missile testing and other activities have driven tensions on the peninsula higher than they’ve been in years. But despite increased appetite for the U.S. and South Korea to address the situation, neither have made much headway on new solutions.

Washington has offered to talk with Pyongyang “at any time,” but the Biden administration holds fast to its insistence on complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization (CVID) prior to any sanctions relief, even after DPRK leader Kim Jong Un declared he would “never give up” nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the