Sanctions relief and economic concessions help keep the Kim regime in power and in business, funding the nuclear programs those concessions are supposed to stop. Last month, he again hinted that he would withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea if he doesn’t get better trading terms. That would have been music to Kim’s ear, since a fundamental goal of North Korean policy is to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. But it would advance a central aim of North Korean and Chinese foreign policy by undercutting the rationale for maintaining sizable U.S. forces in South Korea. That wasn’t the confident young dictator who stepped into South Korea yesterday.

Source: New York Times April 28, 2018 00:45 UTC