Dapper New Kim Jong Un Is Playing an Old Game
The best U.S. approach to North Korea can be summed up in two words: strategic patience.
How about that suit?
Photographer: Jung Yeon Jae/AFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Un rang in the New Year stylishly in a dapper Western business suit and tie, albeit still sporting his odd signature haircut. But the new look did not alter his core message of late: he wants sanctions relief, he wants it now, and he wants it before there can be any real movement on North Korean denuclearization.
While he says he is willing to participate in another summit with President Trump — which he will backstop by meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, of course — he is rolling out vaguely ominous rhetoric about “no choice but a new way to safeguard our sovereignty.” What is the next move in the complex pas de deux between the U.S. and North Korea?