Current Publications

North Korean Summits: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead

Author(s)
Rüdiger Frank
Abstract

Roughly two decades ago, very few people outside of Korea were following developments in and around the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), more commonly known as North Korea. To them, what happened in the first half of 2018 must appear extraordinary and unique. From “fire and fury,” “dotard,” and dangerous bragging about “nuclear buttons,” events turned to no less than six summit meetings of North Korea’s hitherto isolated leader, Kim Jong-un, the dismantlement of a test site, the release of American detainees, and a bunch of smiles and handshakes.

This article aims to place events like the April 2018 inter-Korean summit and the first ever North Korean-American summit in June 2018 into context. It is this author’s hope that this essay can help to provide a more sober and objective evaluation of what has been achieved this year, and render more realistic expectations of what could follow.

Organisation(s)
Department of East Asian Studies
Journal
Horizons
Pages
120-142
No. of pages
23
ISSN
2406-0402
Publication date
2018
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502027 Political economy
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/north-korean-summits-lessons-learned-and-the-road-ahead(96e790f9-f3b6-4e15-ba5f-d514487f5fe6).html