U.S.-North Korea Relations: Stalled Diplomacy And Rising Tensions

Relations between North Korea and the United States have been historically and currently tense and hostile. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Instead, they have adopted an indirect diplomatic arrangement using neutral intermediaries. Since the breakdown in 2019 of negotiations between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to freeze and dismantle the North’s nuclear weapons program, North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK) largely has ignored U.S. and South Korean attempts to resume dialogue, including offers of humanitarian assistance. Stalled Diplomacy and Growing Threat: Since the collapse of the 2019 Trump-Kim talks,…