The U.S. and South Korea continue to look for ways to address the challenges with North Korea, while hoping for the involvement of China. Yet, China is unlikely to get involved unless its interests are also met in the process.

With America distracted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the ICBM on the Korean Peninsula is not getting much attention. But the problem won’t go away without judicious action on both sides.

After Trump drastically shifted the U.S. approach to North Korea, the Biden administration’s policy seems to be more aligned with the previous decades of stalemated isolation of the small nation. A new approach could normalize relations and stabilize security concerns in Asia.

With the United States maintaining a hostile stance, the DPRK faces a bleak choice: either capitulate to U.S. nuclear and missile demands or try to unnerve the U.S. with a show of force. It is likely to try the latter first.

The new year does not look promising for an understanding on Korean issues as U.S.-China tensions persist. Stronger cooperation and coordination is needed to ensure certain peace and stability.

China and the United States should cooperate to remove the fundamental causes of failure — lack of trust, differing definitions of denuclearization, timetables and peace mechanisms — while accounting for the DPRK’s wariness of the so-called Libya model.

North Korea has presented an issue to both China and the U.S. since the ceasefire halted the Korean War in 1953. Though both nations share common security interests regarding the Hermit Kingdom, the desired outcome may drive a wedge between them.

A fundamental shift in thinking is needed under which inspections become an interactive, two-way process. The accusatory hunt for a presumed cheater that has been used in the past needs to change. What's needed is a process that builds trust and provides incentives for cooperation.

Although bilateral relations face many difficulties this year, it’s possible — so long as the DPRK and the ROK understand and respect each other — to seize strategic opportunities for a new phase of reconciliation and cooperation. In that case, the re-emergence of the Peninsula Spring may be expected.

North Korea’s standoffish relationship with the U.S. is often viewed in a silo - yet the hermetic country lies at the center of East Asia’s major economies. Biden’s approach to North Korea may come wrapped in regional diplomacy rather than singular overtures to the isolated nation.