KEI Spotlight

In his latest column for the Korea Times, KEI Senior Director Troy Stangarone pointed to the top-down approach as a key cause of Trump and Kim being unable to reach an agreement in Hanoi. He points out that North Korea's proposal to remove the five most recent UN sanctions resolutions in exchange for the dismantlement of Yongbyon was unacceptable to the United States because this would leave Pyongyang with its existing weapons stockpile. Moreover, the United States would lose leverage while other production facilities would remain intact. This risked formalizing North Korea's status as a de facto nuclear weapons state.  

In this environment, Stangarone looked to a working-level process to iron out these concerns and establish the basis for a more successful future summit between the two leaders. 

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