We are reaching the mid-way point of President Obama’s second term, and now seems to be a good time to make some preliminary conclusions about the Obama administration. Of course, the present author is not planning to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the Affordable Care Act, nor am I capable of producing an informed analysis of the administration’s Middle East polices. Rather, I shall have to limit myself to a discussion of North Korea-related policies.

It is frequently said that Obama’s North Korea policy has been a failure. One’s definition of success is crucial here. If one defines success as