Showing results by author "Sung-Yoon Lee" in All Categories

The onset of COVID-19 has coincided with the dramatic rise of a young woman called Kim Yo Jong in North Korea. Stomping the world stage from the shadows of her secretive state, she is creating headlines and fevered speculation about her role and her future. She is the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, and as her murderous regime’s chief propagandist, internal administrator and foreign policymaker, she is the most powerful woman in North Korea’s history.

The “Pyongyang Playbook” goes as follows: Offer a fake overture of peace; raise the stakes for your foes with a provocation; act unstable and threaten to escalate even further; and finally, call for talks and act reasonable.

After a quarter-century of failed negotiations with North Korea, the United States and South Korea need to tighten up a sanctions regime that is currently far too loose to hurt Pyongyang.