North Korea seems to be insisting on two conditions for the U.S. summit it believed to have been previously established: U.S.–South Korea exercises will exclude threatening military power, and the U.S. will enter denuclearization negotiations in good faith.

As other world leaders took their turns today, President Trump made his first address to the UN General Assembly. He threatened what he called, "small regimes than violate UN principles. Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea, calling Kim Jung Un "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission." He told an audience of world leaders that Iran is a "murderous regime," and that the nuclear deal is "an embarrassment" to the United States. While saying that some countries around the world are "going to hell," he also called for "standing together" — with the US and every other nation putting its own interests first. All this with cutbacks curtailing State Department diplomacy. Is the Trump Administration giving up leadership of the Western World?

The Belfer Center's Nick Burns and John Park discuss on KCRW's To The Point. 

In this op-ed for the New York Times, former MTA Executive Director James Walsh and MTA Faculty Affiliate John S. Park argue that, though American diplomats should be proud of the new sanctions on North Korea that the United Nations Security Council passed last week, the key to stopping North Korea's weapons program is completely dismantling the private Chinese firms that help import illicit goods, through cooperation between the United States and China.

John Park, a senior program officer who directs USIP's Korea Working Group, analyzes the key policy issues arising from the sudden death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on December 17.

"...if China continues to prioritise friendly commercial relations with North Korea and Iran, it will threaten its own long-term security. A chronically proliferating North Korea would provoke Japan to reassess the need for a nuclear deterrent, while a nuclear-armed Iran could destabilise the Gulf and global energy markets. Crafting an approach that includes a sustained US-China engagement to clarify each side's intent, provides for China's energy security and maintains a focus on the threat of nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran is more likely to achieve our shared non-proliferation goals."