Delivering on the Promise of Trustpolitik: Park Geun-hye's Daunting Challenge on the Korean Peninsula

South Korea's new president has reconceptualized the nation's relations with North Korea as engaging in trustpolitik, which focuses on economic cooperation and leadership. It also proposes to delink economic cooperation from denuclearization, with South Korea "nudging" North Korea toward becoming a "great power" without nuclear involvement. The United States, the author argues, should pay attention to this move to change the current dynamic and to leave behind its dependence on sanctions (which have proved fruitless) to engage positively with the new regime of Kim Jong-un.