Pyongyang claims to have tested a new nuclear-capable underwater drone -- Seoul is sceptical -- and North Korea’s foreign minister has visited Moscow. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pledges strong retaliation if the North provokes. The Seoul stock market’s weak performance this year partly reflects rising geopolitical tensions.
The North’s disavowal of reunification is a seismic change domestically; Kim is openly rejecting his father’s and grandfather’s legacy.
Pyongyang’s routinely vocal hostility renders it hard to signal change, with Kim now amending North Korea’s constitution to make his point.
Seoul’s rhetoric plus Yoon’s pledge to retaliate to any provocation risks exacerbating tensions rather than defusing them.
Kim’s cleaving to Russia and China does not create a troika; Moscow and Beijing will not let Kim distract from strategic goals elsewhere.
