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Wonhyuk Lim, Director of the Overseas Development Office of the Korea Development Institute, writes, “there appear to be basically two options for the United States, depending on what kind of relationship with China it envisions. One is to place South Korea within a hub and-spoke alliance against China, using the North Korean nuclear crisis as a catalyst. However, this policy is likely to find little support in South Korea and risks a nationalist backlash if the United States is increasingly viewed as an impediment to Korean unification and regional security…The other alternative is to deal with South Korea on more equal terms and engage it as a partner in building a new order in the region… This approach would not only strengthen the U.S. position in the Korean peninsula but also enhance its policy options in dealing with China and Japan.”

Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, writes, “There is no shortage of options, and an infinity of needs. And ways exist to work around the barriers that divide North Korea from the rest of the world. There’s no time to wait, or these enduring legacies will become unbearable, and feed into a vortex of chaos and collapse in North Korea, with unimaginable consequences for humans and nature alike.”