Hyeong Jung Park, CNAPS Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes, “Whether it is successful or not, the denuclearization process will give birth to a new reality both on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and the challenges for both countries will be how to maintain convergent understandings and cooperative relations along the road to the future.”

Donald Kirk, a Journalist who has been covering Korea – and the confrontation of forces in Northeast Asia – for more than 30 years, writes, “In the end, some analysts say, Lee’s instincts for business, especially construction, may trump his notion of firmness toward North Korea. As a product of the Hyundai empire, he may well build on progress already achieved by the subsidiary Hyundai Asan in developing tourism to Mount Kumkang, above the eastern border with North Korea, and further investment in the Kaesong special economic zone, also above the line 64 kilometers north of Seoul.”

Bonnie Glaser, senior associate at CSIS as well as with Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, Hawaii, Scott Snyder, senior associate of Washington programs in the International Relations program of The Asia Foundation, and John S. Park, expert on Northeast Asian security issues at the U.S. Institute of Peace, write, “In the event of instability in North Korea, China’s priority will be to prevent refugees from flooding across the border. If deemed necessary, PLA troops would be dispatched into North Korea… Contingency plans are in place for the PLA to perform at least three possible missions in the DPRK: 1) humanitarian missions such as assisting refugees or providing help after a natural disaster; 2) peacekeeping or “order keeping” missions such as serving as civil police; and 3) “environmental control” missions to clean up nuclear contamination resulting from a strike on North Korean nuclear facilities near the Sino-DPRK border and secure “loose nukes” and fissile material.”