Updated June 19, 2020
Diplomacy with North Korea: A Status Report
Overview
military equipment to South Korea. Kim warned “the world
United States-North Korea diplomacy to curb North
will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the
Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has been stalled since
DPRK in the near future.” In 2019, the Director of National
February 2019, and observers see little chance for progress
Intelligence told Congress “North Korea is unlikely to give
in the coming months. In June 2020, tension increased on
up all of its nuclear weapons and production capabilities,
the Korean Peninsula, when the Democratic People’s
even as it seeks to negotiate partial denuclearization steps to
Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea’s official name)
obtain key US and international concessions.”
turned more belligerent, blowing up an inter-Korean liaison
office inside North Korea and threatening to interfere in
If talks restart, U.S. negotiators—and Members of Congress
upcoming U.S. elections, among other moves.
conducting oversight—could face the question of whether
to aim for incremental dismantlement of North Korea’s
Since President Donald Trump first agreed in March 2018
nuclear program in step with gradual sanctions relief, or to
to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to
try for a “big deal” and demand that complete
discuss North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, the
denuclearization precede full sanctions relief. A related
Trump Administration has emphasized the importance of
question is whether the United States would accept partial
developing a strong leader-to-leader relationship. The
denuclearization as an outcome of talks. The possibility of
strategy appears to presume better results than the working-
full sanctions relief is complicated by, among other factors,
group negotiations employed by previous administrations.
U.S. sanctions on North Korea for human rights abuses,
Trump and Kim have held three meetings: in Singapore
money laundering, illicit weapons trade, international
(June 2018); Hanoi (February 2019); and Panmunjom (June
terrorism, and illicit cyber operations.
2019). The personal diplomacy defused the U.S.-DPRK
hostility that had developed in 2017, raising alarms that war
Key Developments Since March 2018
could break out on the Korean Peninsula. The diplomacy
also has helped preserve North Korea’s self-imposed
North Korea’s Nuclear and Missile Programs
moratoria on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic
Kim in 2018 publicly agreed to “work toward complete
missile tests. Despite Kim’s 2018 pledge to denuclearize,
President Trump’s approach to North Korea has been called
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” pledging
“permanent dismantlement” of nuclear facilities in
into question by the absence of progress in negotiations, the
DPRK’s renewed hostility,
Yongbyon—an important nuclear site—“as the United
allegations of sanctions-busting
States takes corresponding measures.” He partially
trade, and Pyongyang’s continued enhancements to its
dismantled North Korea’s Sohae missile and satellite
military capabilities.
launch site, and agreed to fully dismantle the site if a
Status of U.S.-DPRK Negotiations
deal was reached. He also dynamited the entrances to
two nuclear test tunnels at Punggye-ri in May 2018 and
The February 2019 Hanoi summit ended without an
said inspectors would be allowed to confirm the test
agreement due to differences over the scope and sequencing
site’s dismantlement. As U.S.-DPRK talks stalled, these
of DPRK denuclearization measures in exchange for
promises have gone unfulfilled.
sanctions relief. Since the June 2019 Panmunjom meeting,
North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or test-
the U.S. and North Korea have held one round of official
launched intercontinental ballistic missiles since
talks, in October 2019. U.S. officials say their North
November 2017, notwithstanding Kim’s December
Korean counterparts have refused to engage in additional
2019 warning that the moratoria no longer holds.
negotiations. The two countries have not agreed on
Since May 2019, North Korea has conducted over a
denuclearization steps, whether an agreement will include
dozen multiple short-range ballistic missile (SRBM)
DPRK missiles, or the mechanisms for verifying any
tests, in violation of United Nations (U.N.) prohibitions,
agreement, including inspection and monitoring
likely advancing the reliability and precision of its
arrangements. Meanwhile, China, Russia, and, to a lesser
missile forces and improving its capabilities to defeat
extent, South Korea have called for a relaxation of
sanctions on North Korea, including Beijing and Moscow’s
regional missile defense systems. Trump has said he has
“no problem” with North Korea’s multiple short-range
December 2019 proposal to lift several categories of U.N.
ballistic missile tests.
sanctions. The Trump Administration rejected the proposals
as “premature.”
Diplomatic and Economic Developments
In late December 2019, Kim announced “there is no
North Korea and China have restored close diplomatic
ground” for North Korea to continue to maintain its nuclear
relations. The relationship had been strained since Kim
and long-range missile testing moratoria. Kim criticized the
became leader in 2011.
United States’ continuation of sanctions, joint military
exercises with South Korea, and shipments of advanced
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Diplomacy with North Korea: A Status Report
Figure 1.Timeline of North Korean Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Tests,
UNSC Sanctions, and Major Summits, 2016-2020
Kim has met on five occasions with Chinese President
North Korea. Congress later inserted provisions into
Xi Jinping, three with South Korean President Moon
defense authorization legislation (P.L. 115-232; P.L.
Jae-in, and one with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
116-92) that set conditions on the President’s authority
none of whom he had met before 2018.
to reduce U.S. troops in South Korea.
Several countries are less robustly enforcing
The United States and South Korea were unable to
international sanctions than before the rapprochement.
renew their Special Measures Agreement (SMA) on
The United Nations has documented North Korea’s
dividing the costs of basing U.S. troops in South Korea
efforts to evade sanctions, including ship-to-ship
before the previous SMA expired at the end of 2019.
transfers of oil and coal off China’s and Russia’s coasts.
The Trump Administration has demanded steep
In 2018, the two Koreas and the United States agreed to
increases in South Korea’s contributions, and Trump has
build a “peace regime,” which could start with a
said it is debatable whether the U.S. troop presence in
declaration formally ending the Korean War. The
South Korea serves U.S. interests.
United States and DPRK have discussed exchanging
diplomatic liaison offices. There has been no progress in
Other Developments
these areas since the February 2019 Hanoi summit.
In May 2018, North Korea released three American
Inter-Korean relations improved markedly in 2018
detainees. Previous U.S. Administrations also secured
before cooling in 2019 and plummeting in 2020. In
the release of U.S. citizens detained in the DPRK,
2018, the two Koreas held three summits, signed a
including 11 individuals freed during the Obama
military agreement and other pacts, and opened a
Administration.
permanent liaison office, their first-ever channel for full-
In 2018, North Korea repatriated remains of possible
time person-to-person contact. International and U.S.
U.S. Korea War-era troops, resulting in more than 40
sanctions, however, prevent Seoul from pursuing many
positive identifications, and the two countries appeared
inter-Korean projects that President Moon favors.
poised to resume the repatriation program that had
Following the Hanoi summit, Pyongyang largely
ignored Seoul’s offers of humanitarian assistance
identified over 400 remains until the United States
, small-
terminated the program in 2005. No progress was made
scale initiatives, and diplomatic engagement. In June
on this issue during 2019 or 2020.
2020, North Korea became more belligerent, declaring
South Korea its “enemy
In December 2019, Congress enacted the Otto
,” severing all overt inter-
Warmbier North Korea Nuclear Sanctions and
Korean communication channels, and blowing up the
Enforcement Act of 2019 (P.L. 116-92) to further
liaison office. Pyongyang said it was retaliating for
restrict financial institutions from providing significant
South Korean civic groups’ sending balloons with anti-
financial services to those subject to North Korea-
Kim regime leaflets into North Korea, in contravention
related sanctions.
of a 2018 inter-Korean agreement.
In spring 2020, amidst rumors about Kim Jong-un’s
Military Developments
poor health, his sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong,
began assuming a more prominent role. There are signs
In 2018, the two Koreas signed a military confidence-
she is being groomed as a possible successor.
building agreement that calls for reduced military
activity around the border and removes guard posts
Mark E. Manyin, Specialist in Asian Affairs
along the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Unlike South
Emma Chanlett-Avery, Specialist in Asian Affairs
Korea, North Korea has not implemented many of its
Mary Beth D. Nikitin, Specialist in Nonproliferation
commitments and in June 2020 it threatened to send
Dianne E. Rennack, Specialist in Foreign Policy
back troops that it had previously withdrawn from areas
near the South Korean border.
Legislation
Trump in June 2018 cancelled major annual U.S.-South
IF11415
Korea military exercises to facilitate diplomacy with
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Diplomacy with North Korea: A Status Report
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