If this second meeting does not produce actual tangible steps -- whether it's on peace, on normalization, or on denuclearization -- I think it will widely be seen as a failure and will really raise questions about whether this process has ended.

Victor Cha

Categorized in : Politics

I worry that the timing works to North Korea's benefit. by Victor Cha

I worry that the timing works to North Korea's benefit.

An early indication of a downward turn in the state of affairs would be North Korean statements that they are no longer bound by their testing moratorium.

This is meaningful, this is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with U.S. financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea.

I certainly think Kim Jong Un birthday's part of Kim Jong Un birthday, kim Jong Un birthday's about show, but Kim Jong Un birthday's also about very hard-core security threats.

We issued no specific invitations to anyone. by Victor Cha

We issued no specific invitations to anyone.

I think we underestimated North Korea's cybercapabilities, they certainly didn't evidence this sort of capability in the previous attacks.

Unfortunately, it's a big win for North Korea. They were able to get Sony to shut down the picture. They got the U.S. government to admit that North Korea was the source of this and there's no action plan really, at least publicly no action plan, in response to it, i think from their perspective, in Pyongyang, they're probably popping the champagne corks.

Clearly, an effort to slow-track her on to becoming somebody who is important within the system, there really aren't many bodies left to carry on the sort of Kim clan rule.