While some countries were taking a major step toward the elimination of nuclear weapons, the US and its allies were focusing on ineffective, counter-productive sanctions against North Korea.
An anti-U.S. protest in Yemen during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Reuters/Khaled Abdullah
Sarah B. Snyder, American University School of International Service
Congress is trying to curb the president’s ties to human rights abusers, harkening back to landmark legislation of the 1970s.
The US and its allies currently deploy several ballistic missile defence systems that would be used in the event North Korea actually launched an attack.
Reuters/KCNA
Intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as the one tested by North Korea this week, fly far too high and fast for current missile defence systems to engage with.
People watch news of missile test on a public TV screen in North Korea.
AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin
Balancing domestic expectations and delicate relations with neighbours while trying to deal with North Korea’s race to become a nuclear power will make for a challenging five-year term.
North Korean leader Kim Jung-un inspects an outpost and Jangjedo defending force.
REUTERS/North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
The key question is whether North Korea does have nuclear weapons that it can readily use against the United States and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan.
The demilitarised zone between North and South Korea is one of the last bastions of the Cold War.
Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Any intensification of the military tension between North Korea and the United States would be calamitous, and requires a patient, innovative and informed approach by policymakers.
South Africa’s cabinet reshuffle saw Malusi Gigaba become finance minister and Sifiso Buthelezi his deputy.
REUTERS/James Oatway
Regardless of how the US sending an aircraft carrier group to the Korean Peninsula plays out, the international community will ultimately have to accept and learn to manage a nuclear North Korea.
Beyond her own personal humiliation, the ramifications of Park’s fall are already reverberating from domestic South Korean politics into the fraught geopolitics of Northeast Asia.
A North Korean ballistic rocket launching drill, undated photo.
REUTERS/ North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
Tensions in Asia may soon boil over. If U.S. leaders fail to seek pathways to peace, the consequences may be grim, warns former National Security Council member.
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Discipline of Politics & International Relations, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University