My travels along the China-DPRK border have given me hope for North Korea’s denuclearization.

North Korean leaders carefully cultivated the tone of the recent 70th anniversary celebrations to avoid antagonizing both Beijing and Washington. This could offer reason for cautious optimism regarding the continuing negotiations, but significant remaining differences in U.S. and North Korean aims and expectations should temper any early celebrations.

For America’s coercive diplomacy with North Korea to work, it must start employing carrots as well as sticks.

The US must give the DPRK more leeway if denuclearization is to be achieved.

To his credit, President Trump was willing to help break the Korean deadlock. But the recent summit was a beginning, not the end. Washington needs to build a relationship with the Kim government, and that process will be smoother if the U.S. also improves its ties with Beijing.

China and the US should work together to keep North Korea to its word and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Commentary following the historic Singapore Summit between American President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un framed the meeting as a tremendous success for President Xi Jinping, with results that leave China’s path to hegemony in the Asia-Pacific clear. But another thesis has also reared its head: that the summit’s peaceful outcome has created new obstacles for the PRC.

A denuclearized North Korea? Don’t hold your breath.

The specter of a U.S.-China trade war should not distract us from paying critical attention to what Beijing might have gained from the recent summit in Singapore on North Korea’s denuclearization. In fact, China is positioning itself to reap diplomatic dividends from what promises to be a long road to denuclearize North Korea.

For the agreement to succeed, the US and its allies must build mutual trust with Kim Jong-un and not dwell on their differences.