Engaging North Korea: Prospects, Benefits and Challenges

Engagement is necessary to address North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, inter-Korean peace and reconciliation, and human rights issues in North Korea. However, sustained engagement has been elusive in recent years as the United States and the international community have prioritized sanctions and, under President Donald Trump, top-level summits without a proper diplomatic process. In this seminar, three experts with long-term experience of sustained engagement with North Korea discussed the prospects that diplomacy can resume following the US presidential election. They also analysed the benefits and challenges that they have encountered in their engagement with Pyongyang. The event took place on 3 December.