Then there is the matter of a possible peace treaty, the restoration of diplomatic relations, and the possible deployment of a multilateral peacekeeping force between the two Koreas. I would unlink these from one another. A peace treaty, if viewed simply as ending the 1950–1953 war formally, would be welcome anytime. I do not believe the United States should refuse this if Pyongyang is prepared to sign it with Washington, the United Nations, and ideally Seoul and Beijing too. An international monitoring force deployed roughly along the existing DMZ might be useful to confirm the deal was being respected, and to make it harder for either side to attack the other. By contrast, full-fledged U.S. diplomatic relations with North Korea should await, at a minimum, the end of the dismantlement phase noted above, and perhaps the disarming phase too.

My taxonomy of stages and steps may require refinement; certainly, more detail of specific measures within each step will be necessary. That is what follow-on negotiations after the Trump-Kim summit would have to develop. But my main point is this: since an immediate and complete North Korean nuclear disarmament is extremely unlikely to result from the Singapore summit, U.S. leaders will need a conceptual framework like the above to guide them. Trump should be armed with a framework before he gets on his plane to meet Kim next month.

Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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