Obama, Trump and North Korea

Abstract

President Barack Obama's historic Pivot to Asia had little appreciable effect on US North Korea policy, other than a dramatic uptick in Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons development programme. Obama's policy of 'strategic patience' failed to halt or even slow North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction but did achieve greater levels of Sino-US cooperation over sanctions towards the regime. It also brought more US weapons and resources to the region - developments of which Beijing disapproved - and closer security ties between South Korea and Japan. Frustrations over North Korea intensified towards the end of Obama's second term, as bipartisan support for a more assertive policy grew. Obama therefore set the stage for a more aggressive American stance for his successor to the White House, although no one anticipated President Trump's hostile and violent rhetoric towards the tiny Asian state, only to reverse course and hold two historic summits with Kim Jong-un in mid-2018 and early 2019.