Mark J. Valencia, a maritime security analyst in Kaneohe, Hawaii, writes “emerging from one of the most conflict prone regions of the world is a conflict avoidance regime – in short, an expectation of self-restraint and sharing in such situations. But these regimes are not multilateral nor have they evolved in that direction despite the hopes and recommendations of policy analysts and practitioners. Nevertheless, they can be expanded and have a spillover effect on relations in general and maritime regime creation in particular.”

Leonid Petrov, Research Associate in the Division of Pacific and Asian History at Australian National University, writes, “If Moscow, Pyongyang and Seoul reach a mutual understanding, coordinate their policies, and preclude their rivals from destroying this unity, many hopes of the Russian and Korean peoples have a good chance of materializing in the coming four to five years.”

Suzy Kim, former international secretary of MINKAHYUP Human Rights Group in Seoul, Korea, and a visiting assistant professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College, and John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, write, “What’s at stake is an end to more than half a century of hostilities in U.S.-North Korea relations, 20 million North Korean lives, and a peaceful and prosperous East Asia. The United States has to commit to the long haul. It’s time to give engaged diplomacy a chance.”