North Korea continues to ratchet up its bellicose rhetoric toward the United States as we enter the new year. Kim Jong Un, admitting that U.S. sanctions are working against his fledgling regime, has told the U.S. that he has “given up” on denuclearization.

Kim will no longer be honoring a commitment to a nuclear testing moratorium between North Korea and the U.S. and said new tests will begin again. This brash action is proof that the sanctions being implemented against the regime are working. What the general public seems not to realize is that South Korean leadership is taking a dovish approach toward the Kim regime to give up its nuclear arsenal. This is making the situation worse, not better.