Reflecting its uncertainty as to whether President Trump or Joe Biden would be better for its interests, North Korea is yet to comment on Biden’s recent victory. Still, Kim Jong Un’s regime will quickly seek to test the incoming president’s attitude toward it.

Kim’s strategy toward Washington rests on extracting his maximal economic opportunities alongside minimal nuclear concessions. It’s an urgent concern for Pyongyang in that Trump, to his credit, has refused to dance to the traditional North Korean diplomatic waltz, which is to say, entertaining North Korea’s offering of limited nuclear disarmament gestures alongside corollary sanctions relief. The limit of this approach, in terms of U.S. interests, is that once sanctions are removed, they are very difficult to reintroduce.