The US is not attending talks between North and South Korea but its reactions will be as critical and closely watched as those who gather at the tense border for the first time in two years on Tuesday.
While many observers welcome the reduction in tensions on the Korean peninsula after an unprecedented barrage of warlike threats between Pyongyang and Washington, some argue the thaw is fraught with risk for the strategy of “maximum pressure” with which the Trump administration has pursued its goal of North Korea’s total de-nuclearisation.
The Trump administration, which has said it cannot accept a nuclear-armed North Korea with the ability to strike the US, has yet to disarm Pyongyang despite a campaign to deprive the isolated regime of finance and friends. Few hold out hope that the inter-Korean dialogue will translate into a long-term win for US policy.
