2026-04-30
1 小时 6 分钟I’m Dan Kurtz-Phelan, and this is the Foreign Affairs Interview.
I think it's very hard for the U.S. policy establishment to completely give up on denuclearization,
because when you give up on denuclearization, you are basically accepting North Korea as a nuclear weapon state.
That's something that's very hard for U.S. policymakers.
It's hard for the NPT regime.
It's hard for our allies, South Korea and Japan, to accept that.
For most of the past few decades, North Korea was considered a top challenge for American foreign policy.
In the past few years, however, it has mostly receded from attention.
Not because the U.S. approach to the problem succeeded, but because it so completely failed.
U.S. policy insisted that North Korea could never become a nuclear power.
Yet North Korea's nuclear program has accelerated year by year, threatening not just American allies, but now the American homeland.
U.S. policy aimed to isolate the Kim family's totalitarian regime,
yet the North Korean leadership has managed to skillfully navigate the new geopolitics,
solidifying its rule and bolstering ties with both China and Russia.
The commitment to pursuing nuclear weapons, no matter the cost,
has looked especially savvy in the wake of U.S. attacks on Iran.
Victor Cha has long been one of the foremost practitioners and analysts of U.S. policy toward North Korea.
In a new essay for Foreign Affairs, he argues that Washington must reckon with this long record of failure
and craft a new strategy for managing the North Korea problem,
one that gives up for now on denuclearization and tries to achieve what Cha calls a "Cold Peace."