With the clock ticking on South Korea's withdrawal from a security pact with Japan in November, President Moon Jae-in sent a blunt-speaking aide on a secret mission to Washington.
The aide, deputy national security adviser Kim Hyun-chong, was a curious choice to broker a truce between the feuding neighbors. Kim had for the past few months been among the chief advocates of escalating the dispute with Japan and pulling out of the intelligence-sharing agreement.
The peace mission worked. Kim returned from a three-hour White House meeting with a U.S. endorsement of Moon's plan to save the agreement and open talks with Tokyo, according to an official familiar with the talks. Japan accepted the arrangement and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later met with Moon to discuss how to get their relationship back on track.