Lee administration steps up engagement-focused North Korea policy

The Lee Jae Myung administration is intensifying its outreach to North Korea, signaling the change through a series of policy decisions and public remarks that emphasize dialogue, the careful management of military tensions and a selective easing of sanctions. In recent weeks, this shift has begun to crystallize as a recalibrated military posture along the inter-Korean border and a sweeping overhaul of the Ministry of National Defense’s North Korea apparatus. At the same time, South Korean officials have reopened the question of easing unilateral sanctions, moves that are aimed at restoring long-dormant channels to Pyongyang and increasingly viewed by analysts as groundwork for a potential high-stakes summit between the United States and North Korea on the sidelines of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China in April. As the latest move, the defense ministry has decided to reinstate the North Korea policy office, reversing a reorganization carried out under the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration. This office had previously been renamed the “North Korea strategy office