The upcoming party plenum: what policies Kim Jong Un may reverse, and announce
Recent events and state media signaling suggest the reversal of agreements made with the U.S. and South Korea in 2018
Two weeks have elapsed since North Korea made an unusual announcement on holding an even more unusual year-end party plenum.
During that time, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun visited Seoul but that did not lead to talks with Pyongyang authorities, dashing hopes for a last-minute breakthrough before the ‘year-end deadline’ unilaterally set by Kim Jong Un.
North Korea continued to build pressure on the U.S. after the plenum announcement and in the lead-up to Biegun’s scheduled visit to Seoul, issuing two Academy of National Defense Science pronouncements on December