South Korea’s presidential office has confirmed that they may hold a new round of direct talks with North Korea soon to try to improve dialogue between the US and North Korea since the failed Hanoi summit.



Since the Hanoi summit fell apart, with President Trump walking away, the US and North Korea have both tried to advance their respective narratives on what’s happened and whose fault it was. South Korea seemed content to let them do that, so long as both sides kept insisting that they were determined to continue talks.



Recently, however, both US and North Korean officials have gotten increasingly hostile. The US is now accusing North Korea of planning new missile tests, and North Korean officials are openly doubting whether further talks are worthwhile.



South Korea stands to lose as much as anyone if these talks fail, and that’s got them interested in trying to salvage the US-North Korea diplomatic track. This isn’t the first time South Korea has felt the need to step in like this, though clearly the US and North Korea, left to their own devices, get into major problems quite often.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz