Bad romance

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 6 applies the framework of strategic delinquency to the revealing behaviour of North Korea during the US administration of Donald Trump, placing particular focus on the period from 2017 to 2019. In so doing, it examines how North Korea’s accelerating nuclear ambitions and pursuit of international status were heavily influenced by the unprecedented foreign policy of the Trump administration, the declining stability of the nuclear order, and a waning US commitment to the nuclear order during this time. This chapter emphasizes how, during this time, North Korea’s initially provocative behaviour, marked by the launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017, was followed by feigned compliance with nuclear norms and the United States’ demands. It highlights how North Korea sought to leverage the unusual disposition of President Trump in order to compel the United States to abandon its ‘hostile policy’, ease unilateral and multilateral sanctions imposed upon the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK), and gain international recognition as a nuclear state. Despite three presidential-level summits between Kim Jong Un and Trump and the same number of meetings between Kim Jong Un and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, North Korea failed to reap its desired outcomes, in no small part owing to its reluctance to concede on its increasingly sophisticated nuclear programme. As a result, by 2020, the DPRK had lost interest both in the global nuclear order and in dialogue with the United States. Relations between Washington and Pyongyang had reached a nadir.