Significant progress has been made on this track over the past year, but the process is on life support and badly needs an industrial-scale shot of adrenaline. Bilateral relations between North and South Korea have undergone a rapid and positive transformation.

The decision by the Trump administration to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization marks another dangerous step in the relentless campaign Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton are waging to provoke a U.S.-Iranian military conflict and topple the regime in Tehran.

Reducing North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities may be necessary for permanent peace and security on the peninsula, but it is not enough.

The fundamental longer-term question is, if peace and security sink deep roots on the Korean landscape, what security role the United States should assume not only on the Korean Peninsula but also toward Northeast Asia more broadly.