Pyongyang has its nuclear missile capability despite Washington’s efforts, and with help from Beijing and Moscow and a US election next year, Kim is now asserting leverage over America, writes Denny Roy.
Denny Roy writes that American strategy in the Indo-Pacific is a result of the heightened sense of alarm Washington feels about recent Chinese behaviour.
Despite what looked like a breakthrough following the North’s participation in the Winter Games in South Korea and the improbable Singapore meeting, Pyongyang increasingly looks like its old self.
Polls show only a minority of Americans would favour US soldiers fighting to defend Taiwan, but a decision by Washington not to intervene in a Taiwan Strait conflict would represent a dramatic shift in US strategy.
Pyongyang is top goal scorer in the warm-up to the Singapore match-up, having undermined sanctions, gained respect and proved a point about nuclear weapons. But there’s everything still to play for.
