The other day, US President Donald J Trump said he hoped to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the “not-too-distant future.” He bragged he had a “great relationship” with Kim. He seems to hope that could work to advance the cause of peace in the East Asian region. One, however, finds the chances of any meaningful talks between the two leaders are bleak.

Observers say President Trump’s new global security road map drops reference to denuclearizing North Korea  as a foreign policy goal. Kim must be liking it. After all, Pyongyang has consistently advanced its nuclear-missile armament program. According to a study, Pyongyang did ratify the multilateral Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in December 1985. In January 1992, North Korea agreed to “not test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy, or use nuclear weapons.”

During then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s visit to Pyongyang in 2000, North Korea agreed to........

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