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://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/96e790f9-f3b6-4e15-ba5f-d514487f5fe6