The current COVID-19 pandemic could indirectly apply the brakes on North Korea’s belligerent behaviour, wrote RSIS Research Fellow Liang Tuang Nah in a commentary. If the COVID-19 situation worsens and Kim Jung-en is forced to focus on containing the spread of the virus rather than engaging in coercive strategies against Washington and Seoul, there could be hope for preserving stability on the Korean Peninsula. But even as hopeful scholars desire a breakthrough, diplomacy with Pyongyang has historically reverted to confrontation or brinkmanship. Regional stakeholders like Seoul, Washington and even Beijing and Tokyo should temper their diplomacy with caution, he wrote.

Liang Tuang Nah is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.