Opinion: Two Koreas Running Rings Around U.S.

Posted: September 28th, 2018

By Tim Willasey-Wilsey

Tim Willasey-Wilsey served for over 27 years in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is now Visiting Professor of War Studies at King's College, London. His first overseas posting was in Angola during the Cold War followed by Central America during the instability of the late 1980s. He was also involved in the transition to majority rule in South Africa and in the Israel/Palestine issue. His late career was spent in Asia including a posting to Pakistan in the mid 1990s.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korea’s foreign minister on Wednesday and says he will visit Pyongyang next month to pave the way for a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong Un.

The announcement follows a bilateral agreement signed by President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in New York earlier in the week. President Trump took that opportunity to reiterate his optimism about his relationship with the North Korean leader, but – writes former Senior British Diplomat Tim Willasey-Willsey, there are serious concerns among U.S. allies that competing agendas won’t work in the U.S.’ favor.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+