Nearly three years after his failed bromance with Donald Trump, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is once again angling for U.S. attention.
North Korea has tested a new, high-tech missile and hinted that it may agree to restart talks with South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in desperately wants to resuscitate his moribund outreach to the North. But if Kim is expecting a positive reaction from U.S. President Joe Biden, he shouldn’t hold his breath. With issues like China and the rebuilding of U.S. alliances topping Biden’s agenda, overtures to Kim are unlikely.
Kim’s dog-eared script is not helping his cause. The latest drama has unfolded all too predictably. In Act One, Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister and the North’s spokesperson on North-South affairs, averred that the regime might be interested in discussing a peace treaty with South Korea — an idea that Moon himself had proposed in September. She hastened to add, however, that South Korea will have to distance itself from U.S. demands for nuclear disarmament and end joint military exercises with U.S. forces.