North Korea’s apparent willingness to engage in talks with the US about abandoning its nuclear weapons appears to mark a breakthrough in the crisis, but progress will likely be fraught with uncertainty, traps and trade-offs.
The Trump administration has made efforts to compel North Korea to give up its nuclear missile programme its top foreign policy priority since taking office, embarking on a campaign of “maximum pressure” through waves of economic sanctions and repeated threats of possible military action.
President Donald Trump was quick to hail “possible progress”, a cautious embrace from a US president who last year threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on the Pyongyang regime.