South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been steering his foreign policy through narrow gaps and around tricky obstacles during his first nine months, like a video game race car nearing the end of a level. Having dodged multiple pitfalls, he’s positioned himself to act as a bridge between the United States and North Korea. His envoy has returned from a successful foray to Pyongyang and Moon Jae-in is driving things forward.

True, the United States has contributed to an inflection point through its pressure campaign. And North Korea helped choose the timing by declaring the “completion” of its nuclear force in late November and then by calling for Olympic cooperation in Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s speech. But since then, the Moon government has been the one forging a path toward meaningful talks between the key stakeholders.

Moon sent a delegation to Pyongyang this week to explore further peace initiatives on the Korean Peninsula, building on the Olympic détente. Its job, essentially, was to get the North Koreans to use the word “denuclearization,” and then take that, with whatever qualifiers Pyongyang attached, to sell in Washington. That Pyongyang did use that word surprised many, but both Moon and Kim are savvy enough to know without the word “denuclearization” US President Donald Trump would not respond.

Please click here to read the full “Moon quietly in the centre” article at US News by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Research Fellow, Dr Andray Abrahamian.