Obama says North Korea's isolation limits Washington's leverage

Former President Obama with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

(Image credit: Shizuo Kambayashi/Getty Images)

published 25 March 2018

Former President Barack Obama weighed in on upcoming nuclear negotiations with North Korea while giving a speech in Japan on Sunday.

"North Korea is an example of a country that is so far out of the international norms and so disconnected with the rest of the world," he said, which means Pyongyang is "less subject to these kinds of negotiations" because they have little in the way of international relations to lose under punitive sanctions schemes.

"So far," Obama added, "we haven't seen as much progress [with North Korea] obviously as we would have liked. But the one thing that is very important to recognize is that individually, no country can solve this problem as effectively as if we all work together."

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President Trump has announced plans for direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this spring, though a date and location for the negotiations have yet to be determined.

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