Is Trump trying to revive peace efforts with North Korea? That is the question asked by The Korea Herald in a long analysis of Trump’s actions starting with his statement on Sunday in which he said he had ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to scale back US participation in joint exercises with the South Korean military. “His latest overtures have revived speculation that he may be seeking to return to the personalized, leader-to-leader diplomacy that defined his first-term approach to North Korea,” the Herald reports. “The decision to scale back allied military exercises, in particular, bears similarities to Trump’s approach following the 2018 Singapore summit, when he moved to suspend major drills in an effort to support negotiations with Pyongyang.”
But the Pyongyang of today is not the Pyongyang of 2018–2019. “At the time, Pyongyang had strong incentives to engage Washington in hopes of securing sanctions relief and broader diplomatic recognition,” the Herald says. “Since then, however, North Korea has deepened military and economic cooperation with Russia while strengthening ties with China, reducing its dependence on direct negotiations with the United States.” In other words, Kim Jong-un has less incentive to engage with Trump than he did the first time around.
Whether a meeting will occur is still up in the air, though Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he does plan to meet with the DPRK leader in person later this year.
