North Korea

They include China’s relations with North Korea, the effectiveness of UN sanctions, North Korean regime survival, Korean unification, the likelihood of a refugee tsunami, ballistic missile defence, the possibility of negotiating with North Korea and the larger context of a new “Great Game” between an emerging China and a retreating United States. [...] The US Ambassador to the UN, perhaps still in the learning stage of UN niceties at the time, proudly boasted that the resolution showed that the UN meant business. [...] Any questions about Kim Jong-un’s control were literally laid to rest with the execution of his uncle, the likely murder of his half-brother in Malaysia, the execution of several generals and the disappearance into the gulags for anyone suspected of disloyalty. [...] The “New Great Game”: The “Chinese Dream” Meets the “Great Negotiator” Outside of the immediate North Korean conundrum a new “Great Game” is being played out between the world’s current superpower, the US, which is perceived by some to be in decline especially with President Trump at the helm, and the new heavy-weight challenger, China, that wants to take its rightful place as an equal and perhaps [...] President Xi Jin-ping has laid out his vision, his “Chinese Dream”, with two ambitious goals for China: to achieve a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the centenary of the Communist Party of China in 2021, and to build China into a modern socialist country by the centenary of the People’s Republic of China in 2049.