It was a strange suspended state—a carnival packed up for winter, with the tents folded, the trucks loaded, but the carnies still skulking round leering at people as they walked by. Then, with little warning Trump told the world that he and Xi talked about North Korea. With that brusque aside by a man who lies for a living, the stage is again lighting up the liminal—the North Korea carnival is back.
The think tank spruikers, sanctions specialists, defector whisperers, the intel gurus, missile trajectory enthusiasts, and the collapse prophets now sense a change in the air. The first tent is off the truck, the first carnie sweat has broken, the turning clowns are being oiled.
Somewhere in Washington, a Korea specialist has updated their conference proposal. Somewhere else, an NGO quietly dusted off a funding application on humanitarian engagement. Editors who have not commissioned a Korea piece in two years are answering emails again. Never hesitating, the ringmasters at Foreign Affairs anticipated this, and called forward the clowns. The North Korea carnival, dormant but never dead, is again stirring...
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