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As the year-end deadline set by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April looms, it remains unclear what option he will take, with much speculation that the most likely scenario is a formal end to long-stalled diplomacy between the North and the U.S.

Some say that the North has already decided its “new path” and that the new policy will be a return to the “fire and fury” of 2017. That line of prediction was strengthened by two announcementsearlier