Daniel C. Sneider (Stanford University) writes that the spectacle of the first-ever meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. President obscures essential realities within the region. He argues that the United States should follow up the unconventional diplomacy in Singapore with careful attention to managing our alliances with South Korea and Japan.

Richard J. Ellings (NBR) argues that North Korea and the United States share strategic interests in checking a rising China and outlines steps that the United States could take to exploit this opportunity prudently.

In advance of the first summit between President Trump and South Korea’s newly elected progressive president Moon Jae-in, Scott Snyder (Council on Foreign Relations) discusses Moon's most consequential foreign policy challenge: the management of the security alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

In his new book, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, Robert Kaplan (Stratfor Global Intelligence) contends current global conflicts, including wars, political instability, and clashes over religion, can be better understood and even forecasted through close examination of the maps that chart our world. In this Q&A, NBR’s Abraham Denmark asks Kaplan how this theory relates to the Asia-Pacific, and what challenges geography will play for the United States’ policy toward the region.

South Korea’s National Assembly elections, held two weeks ago, were an opportunity for both the ruling conservative Saenuri Party and the liberal opposition Democratic United Party to gain the upper hand before December’s presidential election. NBR interviewed a trio of Korean political scholars to get their take on the election results, the implications for Korea’s December presidential election, and what the mood of the Korean electorate can tell us about Korea-U.S. relations and how future Korean governments might handle foreign policy issues such as North Korea, free trade, and sharing the military burden.

NBR interviewed Professor Clark Sorensen, Chair of the Korea Studies department at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, to shed light on North Korea’s economic situation, its regime’s decision-making process, and the ideology that drives social and political behavior.

NBR spoke with Chung Min Lee, Strategic Asia contributing author and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies and the Underwood International College at Yonsei University, to assess the North Korean leadership transition and its implications for regional security and diplomacy.

As North Korea begins to determine its future direction following the the December 17 death of Kim Jong-il, NBR spoke with Yong-Chool Ha, Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Social Science at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.

Following the death of Kim Jong-il, attention is now on his youngest son and heir Kim Jong-un. Can the third Kim in this dynastic succession control the fragile country? Will he continue his predecessor’s bellicose behavior? NARP scholar Sung-Yoon Lee considers these questions and what a leadership change in Pyongyang would mean for the region.

This Q&A presents an interview by Asia Policy editor, Andrew Marble, on political change in North Korea with Stephan Haggard, Krause Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California–San Diego, and Daniel Pinkston, Senior Analyst and Deputy Project Director for North East Asia at the International Crisis Group in Seoul.