South Korean President Calls for Easing Sanctions on the North

Breaking with decades of policy on North Korea, the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, is now urging the United States to ease sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement that it freeze its weapons programs.“I believe there is significant value in a trade-off between sanctions — which are not particularly effective anyway — and a stop to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology,” Mr.Lee said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday.However unpalatable such a bargain may seem, the world has no realistic alternative, Mr.

Lee argued.North Korea is increasingly brandishing its nuclear missiles against the South.

It is no longer the isolated pariah that Washington has tried to tame through a mix of pressure and dialogue as the wars in Ukraine and Iran have altered the geopolitical landscape.Both Russia and China have re-embraced North Korea as a strategic partner, particularly after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, deployed troops and weapons to support Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.That conflict, alongside American strikes in Iran, has only strengthened North Korea’s resolve to expand its nuclear deterrent.Still, Mr.

Lee believes that President Trump is the only leader capable of drawing Mr.Kim back to the negotiating table.

South Korean officials say Mr.Trump represents the North Korean leader’s best opportunity to sign a peace treaty for the Korean War, which never formally ended, and normalize relations with Washington.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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