As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in kick off a three-day summit Tuesday, Moon’s main goals are to improve relations with North Korea and try to keep denuclearization on track. North Korea has committed to denuclearization several times this year, in meetings with South Korean leaders and, most visibly, at the Singapore summit with President Donald Trump in June. But it’s still unclear how much...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will push North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to detail his nuclear programs when the two meet Wednesday for the second day of a high-stakes summit that could make or break President Trump’s own pursuit of diplomacy with Pyongyang. With the Moon-Kim summit in the North Korean capital marking the third time the two have met in eight months, the South Korean president faces mounting pressure to get Mr. Kim to show serious action on denuclearization — lest the North’s currently stalled talks with Washington collapse...

It’s known as the “Hermit Kingdom,” the world’s most isolated country, run by a crazed, totalitarian dynasty. But North Korea maintains embassies in nearly 50 nations — including Algeria and Zimbabwe — and could emerge swiftly as a normalized global power if nuclear talks with South Korea and the United States play out the right way. And that’s a problem. The North’s embassies have long been used not for traditional diplomacy but for illicit activities, including blackmail, cybercrime and drug trafficking. U.S. analysts warn that it’s a pipe dream to think they can...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivered a message from Kim Jong Un to U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, confirming the North Korean leader's commitment to "complete denuclearization." Moon, who is scheduled to deliver his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, was meeting with Trump on the sidelines to brief him on his recent summit in Pyongyang with Kim, an event that has revived U.S.-North Korea talks. Trump, who a few weeks earlier canceled U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing...

A gap is growing between Washington and Seoul over an inter-Korean military pact that Washington worries might weaken South Korea’s defenses against a North Korea attack. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed discontent when she spoke to him after Seoul outlined plans to sign a military agreement with Pyongyang at the third inter-Korean summit in September. Pompeo’s concern over Seoul’s military agreement with Pyongyang comes as relations cool between South Korea and the United States...

In June 2018, the United States and North Korea agreed to join efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. But what exactly a “peace regime” entails remains...

The coronavirus pandemic has put many U.S. foreign policy priorities on the back burner, including the North Korea dilemma. But this longstanding problem continues...

So what comes next? After President Donald Trump's long-awaited second summit with North Korea ended inconclusively, the adversaries enter a period of deep uncertainty, if not fresh crisis. Trump, who had built up expectations for months over his second outing with leader Kim Jong Un, left Hanoi early with...