Opinion | As US-North Korea diplomacy falters, will Kim Jong-un look to boost ties with Russia?

The diplomatic process between the United States and North Korea that began last year is fragile after the collapse of talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi. One more wrong move by either side could bring the entire house of cards tumbling down, taking South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s inter-Korean dreams with it.

We came perilously close to that with the recent confusion over possible new US sanctions. Trump tweeted that he had asked his Treasury department to withdraw new “large scale” sanctions, which turned out to be a much smaller set of two designations against Chinese companies.

No doubt, Hanoi was an embarrassment for both leaders. For Kim, the risk of going to Vietnam may not be so apparent to outside observers. Even as North Korea appears as an authoritarian monolith to the outside world, it, like any other country, has internal politics. Kim faces prominent detractors within his regime who do not favour his outreach to the United States over the nuclear issue at this time.

Indeed, a senior North Korean diplomat hinted as much during a rare briefing held on the issue in Pyongyang for foreign diplomats. Choe Son Hui, the official, said Kim had disregarded “thousands of petitions” by “our army, people and workers and officials of [the] munitions industry” and still gone to Hanoi to meet Trump, only to find that US demands remain maximalist.

The risk with the collapse in Hanoi is that Kim may now choose to unveil what the “new way” he so cryptically hinted at during his New Year’s Day address on January 1 meant. North Korea watchers differ on its meaning: some interpret the “new way” as a return to the old one, of missile tests, provocations, and “fire and fury”.