Pressure has failed

These mistakes are not Trump’s alone. They are committed by administration after administration. Any President has the executive prerogatives necessary for confidence building-measures based on sanctions relief, inter-Korean reconciliation, or formally ending the Korean War. Yet every President seems to fall into the trap of thinking that North Korea will eventually surrender or collapse under pressure. Every time they end up kicking the can down the road, and every time North Korea ends up posing a greater threat to the national security of the United States and its allies. This time, however, there may be no more road left, given North Korea’s nuclear-tipped ICBMs and Sino-Russian opposition to more UN sanctions. A resolution in 2020 would come just in time for the seventieth anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and the whole region would be safer for it.

Henri Féron is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. Follow him on Twitter @henriferon.