Might U.S.-DPRK relations, after years of going nowhere, be about to pick up a wee bit?

Nope, says Washington. Or as Yonhap’s headline put it on Sept. 1: “White House says U.S. policy on N. Korea remains unchanged.” National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson

Patrick Ventrell intoned the usual mantra: “North Korea must show it is serious and prepared to abide by its commitments, particularly concerning denuclearization, before authentic and credible negotiations are possible … We are not interested in talks for the sake of talks.”

Well, maybe. On the other hand, four separate recent news items arguably suggest otherwise. With neat symmetry, two came from the U.S. side and