Pyongyang is having its moment. The latest issue of Foreign Affairs, a premier foreign policy magazine that often reflects mainstream debates within the U.S. foreign policy establishment, ran three essays on North Korea, a rare occasion for the publication. Authored by three prominent Asia hands, each essay approached the question from a distinct vantage point, yet together they signal something unmistakable: Washington’s strategic assumptions about the Korean Peninsula are being thoroughly reexamined, and Seoul must take note.

Victor D. Cha of Georgetown University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) makes the case for a “cold peace.” After three decades of failed denuclearization efforts, he argues that Washington can no longer treat complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization as a prerequisite for engagement — arms control negotiations, crisis communication mechanisms and limits on missile production are what is achievable now.

Jung Pak, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, explains how that moment arrived. Tracing Kim’s reversal of fortune, she unpacks how what appeared to be Pyongyang’s nadir became the foundation for its ascent. Kim used the pandemic to tighten domestic control, pivoted toward Moscow when Russia’s war in Ukraine created an opening and leveraged Beijing’s competitive anxiety to extract concessions from both powers simultaneously.

Oriana Skylar Mastro of Stanford draws out the........

© The Korea Times