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Tsuneo “Nabe” Watanabe, Senior Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation, writes, “if mutual trust were created between the leaders of both sides, it would not be impossible to find solutions to overcome future troubles as well as the current impasse without damaging the alliance itself… The complex and difficult management of bases in Okinawa should not be a litmus test for support of the general Japan-US alliance.”

U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) issued this analysis of the DPRK’s recent statements which notes, “By focusing on the dynamic as a cause of the problem rather than blaming the U.S. (or the ROK or Japan) as the culprit, Pyongyang has given itself room to consider a fairly broad range of options for moving the negotiating process ahead. Similarly noteworthy was the statement’s unusually balanced portrayal of the accomplishments of the Six Party Talks, citing examples of ways in which both sides gained. That allows the North to move forward in talks while maintaining its position that the way ahead rests on give or take or, more precisely, the principle of ‘action for action.’”