December 07, 2023
Opinion

Why, in talks with the U.S., North Korea can now afford to play hardball

With China back onside and Trump facing a domestic crisis, Pyongyang is in no great rush

Preliminary working-level talks between North Korea and the United States, after many delays and false starts, were finally held in Stockholm this weekend, only to fall apart after eight hours.

On Saturday evening in front of his country's embassy in Stockholm, North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Myong Gil read aloud a short statement saying that the talks had ended in failure and, predictably, placed all the blame on his U.S. counterparts.