From Pacific Standard
Making Sense of North and South Korea's Diplomatic Summit
By Jack Denton
On Friday, the leaders of North and South Korea met in a diplomatic summit that was filled with theatrical gestures of cooperation and humor, according to the New York Times....
To help make sense of this seemingly abrupt change in the diplomatic winds, as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Kim Jong-un, Pacific Standard spoke to Steven Weber, a political scientist who specializes in national security and North Korea at the University of California–Berkeley.
How historic is this meeting? How big of a deal is it?
It's a pretty big deal. Everybody's right to be wary. These kind of summits always are really heavy on pageantry, nor do they usually ever yield really specific agreements. But look, if a year ago—or even six months ago—I had said to you this was going to happen today, you would have looked at me and said, "No way." It's a significant step forward....
