Japan and Russia Muscle Their Way Into the Trump-Kim Dialogue

First Donald Trump walked away from a second round of nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. Now all the traditional powers of northeast Asia—China, Japan, Russia, South Korea—are muscling in to try to assert themselves as more than peripheral actors in this drama.

This week alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Kim for the first time in the Russian city of Vladivostok and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Trump at the White House, advocating polar opposite agendas for how to proceed in addressing the North Korean nuclear program.

Neither Putin nor Abe has the clout to single-handedly sway Kim or Trump one way or another, but their renewed involvement points to a new (and yet old) dynamic in the negotiations, which will only further complicate a stalled diplomatic process. As Trump’s former national-security adviser H. R. McMaster, liked to say, geopolitics are back with a vengeance.

Perhaps more than any other world leader, Japan’s prime minister has sought to advance his nation’s interests by nurturing