If North Korea has made the “strategic shift” that Secretary Pompeo claimed they had, there is precious little from his trip to Pyongyang this week to demonstrate it.
With a stream of revelations about ongoing nuclear and missile activities, the Secretary was reduced to bargaining over a small-bore concession that had supposedly already been granted: the destruction of a missile-engine test stand.
And even with limited progress on that concession, the North Koreans were quick to bad-mouth the talks.
If there is any silver lining to Pompeo’s visit, it was the growing
If North Korea has made the “strategic shift” that Secretary Pompeo claimed they had, there is precious little from his trip to Pyongyang this week to demonstrate it.
With a stream of revelations about ongoing nuclear and missile activities, the Secretary was reduced to bargaining over a small-bore concession that had supposedly already been granted: the destruction of a missile-engine test stand.
Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, director of the Korea-Pacific Program, and distinguished professor of political science at UC San Diego. With Marcus Noland, he is the author of "Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements and the Case of North Korea" (Stanford University Press, 2017).