North Korea’s Signaling on Nuclear Weapons and Negotiations

Sangsoo Lee and Riccardo Villa
Introduction:
The US-DPRK Summit in Hanoi in 2019 ended without a deal due to disagreements over the right mix of sanctions relief for the nuclear concession Kim Jong Un offered. After the US rejected the North’s request to lift a significant portion of the sanctions imposed since 2017, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho explained, “…as we take steps toward denuclearization, the most important issue is security, but we thought it would be more burdensome for the US to take military-related measures, which is why we saw partial lifting of sanctions as corresponding action.” This rationale illuminates Pyongyang’s previous calculation: that partial sanctions relief for partial denuclearization would be an acceptable outcome.
Related Publications
-
What Comes Next for North Korea-Russia Relations?
North Korea and Russia have taken their relations to a new level after the leaders of the two countries held an in-person summit meeting on Wednesday. While Pyongyang and Moscow […]
-
South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and the IPEF: Convergence and Commonality
For some time now, the existing multilateral networks such as those of the United Nations (UN) system have been largely ineffective in providing good global governance and helping create resilience, […]
-
Risk Reduction and Crisis Management on the Korean Peninsula
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inherently intertwined with the growing instability of the East Asian security environment, where high tensions significantly increase the risk of unintended incidents and armed […]
-
Washington Declaration: Beyond Korea, What it Means for India?
In April 2023, South Korea and the United States released the Washington Declaration to reiterate and upgrade their treaty alliance. In outlining a joint nuclear deterrence strategy, the Declaration reaffirmed […]
-
Korea Looks to Europe: Its Growing Military-Strategic Cooperation with NATO
Korea is looking to Europe in the military-strategic dimension. It wants to boost ties with NATO even as strengthening relations with the AP4 (four Asia-Pacific partners) forms an important aspect […]
-
Understanding North Korea’s Resilience through Economy, Laws and Governance: a review of introductory sources and essential monographs
This article reviews contributions that may help researchers re-evaluate the question of the North Korea’s remarkable resilience in spite of its undeniable economic failure, a seemingly obscure legal system, and […]