The failure of high-level discussions may force Washington and Pyongyang to start more effective working-level talks.

On Thursday afternoon, as it became clear that lunch between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump was off and that there would be no signing of an agreement between their two countries, storm clouds briefly gathered over Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.

In the nearby Metropole hotel, the mood had darkened as well. The summit between the leaders was supposed to kick off a process of some form of denuclearization, through which the two countries would try to build a better relationship. Eventually, the sides hoped, zero-sum “I win, you lose” politics would be replaced by win-win cooperation.

Please click here to read the full “There’s a silver lining in the clouds over the North Korea negotiations” article at Foreign Policy, written by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Research Fellow, Dr Andray Abrahamian.