Publication

This publication reflects on North Korea’s relations with the US, China, Russia and South Korea with regards to its denuclearization and macroeconomic development. Key insights include 1) that due to regional dynamics, Pyongyang felt sufficiently confident in August 2018 to refuse Washington’s demands to the extent that bilateral negotiations over denuclearization nearly broke down; 2) all regional states rallied behind Pyongyang, to an extent, thus rebuffing Washington; 3) doubts about the sincerity of Washington’s commitment to defusing the crisis on the Korean Peninsula are leading Beijing and Moscow to remove their self-imposed constraints regarding North Korea and its regional economic integration, and more.