![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/signs-695791_640.jpg\" "\\"Image")
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The Korean peninsula\u2019s deservedly been labelled a \u2018flashpoint\u2019 for well over a half a century but flare-ups in tension appear to be happening more frequently. Under the Trump administration, Washington\u2019s seemingly more inclined to allow matters to come to a head, hoping to then put the issue on a new trajectory. And certainly, the sensible way to think about the peninsula is in terms of a change in the trend of developments, rather than an abrupt and decisive transformation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even today, a reliable North Korean missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland is an aspiration. The DPRK’s closer to this capability than it was 10 or even 5 years ago, but it\u2019s not imminent or readily within reach. What\u2019s newish, is that Donald Trump, both as a candidate and in office, has declared that the DPRK won\u2019t be permitted to confirm that it has achieved this technological milestone.<\/span><\/p>\n Although hardly an original posture, the Trump administration\u2019s wisely focused heavily on the role that China could play, even suggesting that the US could be a more accommodating partner on other contentious issues if Beijing were more assertive with the DPRK. Unfortunately, China has for decades skillfully fostered the impression\u2014also supported emphatically by the DPRK\u2014that the Korean question\u2019s essentially a Washington-Pyongyang affair. In fact, the DPRK, in terms of its creation and subsequent evolution and the division of the peninsula, is overwhelmingly the creation of the former Soviet Union and the People\u2019s Republic of China. There has been more than a hint of late of a new attitude in Beijing, but breaking down Beijing\u2019s studied distance from the issue will still call for some skillful and persistent diplomacy on Washington\u2019s part.<\/span><\/p>\n If we can (a) get China to accept that it\u2019s a core participant, and, (b) persuade all the key players that there\u2019s no swift and final solution but rather a question of putting the peninsula on a different path, then the following steps might take us to a starting point:<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump administration, almost characteristically, has declared that if China doesn\u2019t help fix the problem of the DPRK, the US will do so unilaterally. All states in the region should have a keen interest in the US and China not evaluating these issues in such black and white terms. Similarly, all states in the region have some capacity to bring influence to bear to encourage stronger convergence in the approaches currently preferred in Beijing and Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Korean peninsula\u2019s deservedly been labelled a \u2018flashpoint\u2019 for well over a half a century but flare-ups in tension appear to be happening more frequently. Under the Trump administration, Washington\u2019s seemingly more inclined to allow …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":31858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,172,211,31],"class_list":["post-31857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear-security","tag-south-korea","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n