In recent weeks, I made one of my periodic trips to Washington to meet with experts and policymakers. Perhaps never before have I observed such a decline in interest in North Korea in the U.S. capital.

The DPRK appears to have slipped off the U.S. foreign policy community’s radar, as Washington focuses almost entirely on China. Beijing is increasingly perceived as Washington’s primary challenge, and there is a strong desire to curtail Chinese influence in the region and beyond. 

Everything else, even the war in Ukraine, is viewed as secondary. Whenever possible, these issues are analyzed through the lens of