Nuclear Issues

Elizabeth Sherwood Randall talks about measuring North Korea's denuclearization progress with Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

After a tumultuous week of unpredictable twists and turns during President Donald Trump’s visit to Europe, anxiety levels have risen among experts and policy makers about the coming summit between Trump and President Vladimir Putin. As President Trump himself has noted, there is no shortage of issues demanding the attention of the two leaders: Syria, Iran, arms control and — who knows — maybe even Russia’s interference in America’s elections. But energy could snake its way onto the agenda, and Trump needs to be careful not to give Putin concessions in exchange for something the Russian president already plans on doing.

The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore this month (June 12) has drawn both skepticism and optimism from experts. A panel of senior American and South Korean diplomats with experience negotiating with North Korea weighed in at an event hosted by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs’ Korea Working Group on Tuesday (June 19).

Europeans share the world-wide relief that after apocalyptic threats of war the Singapore summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un has dramatically lowered tensions on the Korean Peninsula and thus for the time being avoided a conflict that would have horrible consequences for Koreans, Japanese and Americans, indeed for the entire world. Diplomacy is back and both sides are now committed to negotiations toward an agreement on peace and the denuclearization of North Korea.

Nonetheless, the summit has caused a triple shock in Europe.

After the crucible of the Trump-Kim summit, it seems clear that Pompeo has been elevated, and Bolton diminished, by the president’s sudden love affair with Pyongyang.

In the wake of US President Donald J. Trump’s June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, R. Nicholas Burns, an Atlantic Council board member who served as US undersecretary of state from 2005 to 2008, discussed the tough work that lies ahead and lessons from a not too distant past.

Burns spoke in a phone interview with the New Atlanticist’s Ashish Kumar Sen. Here are excerpts from our interview.

In the hyperpolarized state of American politics and policy debate, both critics and supporters of the Trump administration have become so predictable that they are now background noise. If required to summarize my assessment of the Trump-Kim summit in one line, it would be: oversold and undervalued. Despite their best efforts, his critics haven’t come close to matching Trump’s preposterous claim that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”

Chuck Freilich provides an analysis of the recent Kim-Trump summit in Singapore that includes implications for Israel.

Belfer Center experts offer insight and analysis of the Trump-Kim summit through statements and interviews.