The return of an integral figure behind Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s historic 2018 summit has sparked speculation about the future of US-North Korea diplomacy and the potential for another meeting between the two leaders.
Alex Wong, who the US president-elect named as his deputy national security adviser on November 22, “helped negotiate my summit with North Korean leader Kim,” Trump said in a statement announcing the nomination.
Wong not only led efforts to implement the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy during Trump’s first term, but also served as the second-in-command in denuclearisation talks with North Korea. His experience spans follow-up talks after the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore in 2018 and preparations for the second summit in Hanoi the following year.
Jonathan Corrado, director of policy at The Korea Society in New York, said Wong’s close ties to Trump and his negotiation expertise suggest the incoming administration may be ready to re-engage with North Korea.
But he cautioned that the Kim regime’s long-standing reluctance “to make meaningful compromises has always been the missing piece in the equation” throughout more than three decades of denuclearisation diplomacy.
After negotiations with the US stalled, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes continued unabated, and Kim has since drawn closer to Russia, providing Moscow with thousands of troops for its war in Ukraine.