US President Donald Trump’s new global security road map has dropped any reference to denuclearising North Korea as a goal, fuelling speculation that Washington may be angling to boost the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang in 2026.
The target of ending North Korea’s nuclear threat had been a constant in the National Security Strategy of every US president since the emergence of Pyongyang’s programme in 2003, but was conspicuously absent in Friday’s document.
The omission of any mention of North Korea and its accelerating programme to build nuclear weapons that can be delivered by ballistic missiles capable of striking the mainland US is fanning expectations of a potential revival of talks between Trump and Kim Jong-un, last held in 2019.
Trump has spoken of his willingness to sit down with the North Korean leader in a “proactive” way, indicating he “wants to get something done by taking some action,” said Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“Then I think there is a certain degree of conscious intent there, that the idea of denuclearisation … really doesn’t need to be brought up here,” said Hong, an expert on Pyongyang’s strategic thinking.
In Trump’s previous security blueprint issued during his first term in 2017, North Korea was mentioned 16 times as a threat to “our homeland” and a rogue state that could “use a nuclear weapon against the United States”.