60Abstract. The article considers the key issues related to the North Korea’s nuclear problem in the context of the present policies of the United States towards the DPRK, as well as new priorities and evolving approaches of the Republican Administration regarding the tasks of providing peaceful resolution on the Korean Peninsula. It has been revealed that in recent years, the policy of President D. Trump in that area has been resolutely reshaped away from attachment to “military option” towards the search for negotiated solutions of the nuclear issue. In the paper, special attention is paid to the review of results achieved in the course of the dialogue as well as to assessment of the reasons which had led to its failure. It has been shown that the course of the incumbent Administration regarding North Korea is widely criticized in the United States for its inability to produce tangible outcomes. According to many estimates, the results of the American-North Korean summit meetings have revealed the only fact that presently, the DPRK has no intent to abandon either its nuclear weapons or delivery means. Moreover, Pyongyang has taken the occasion of the talks to augment its nuclear arsenal and upgrade the ballistic missiles capabilities. However, the ongoing discussion in the United States on the nuclear issue has highlighted that political opponents of President Trump have not yet succeeded in proposing any reasonable alternative to his policy. It can be assumed that the meaningful comprehension of the current situation as well as practical policy-making process will restart only after the presidential elections in the United States. In this vein, the author suggests his estimates of the prospects for progress in the settlement of the Korean crisis, which are provided together with the consideration of potential scenarios for future developments. It is argued that the most preferable and rational option should be the building of international cooperation and launching multilateral arrangement for a dialogue with the DPRK to resolve the nuclear issue.
Keywords: peace and security, the Korean Peninsula, nuclear issue, denuclearization, American-North Korean dialogue, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, sanctions, United Nations Security Council
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