Recent news from North Korea has focused on missile launches and nuclear tests. But when it comes to diplomacy, there may be a lesson from history – and sports. Asia Pacific Management consultant Ray Tsuchiyama shares some thoughts in this commentary. [...] Sports makes friends.  Like 1971’s Ping-Pong diplomacy, let’s give soccer a chance to create a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.

Speaking during his formal oath-taking ceremony on Wednesday, Moon pledged to work for peace on the Korean Peninsula amid growing worry over the North's expanding nuclear weapons and missiles programme. "I am willing to go anywhere for the peace of the Korean Peninsula," Moon said. "If needed, I will fly immediately to Washington. I will go to Beijing and I will go to Tokyo. If the conditions shape up, I will go to Pyongyang."

There are no I  [❤]  North Korea bumper stickers, no shot glasses with North Korean city names. But imagine a reality where the 69-year-old totalitarian state was a free and open country that welcomed tourists to frolic in its streets. This improbable reverie inspired the Swedish design agency Snask to create a ready-to-use nation brand identity kit, complete with a new North Korean flag brandishing a message of love.

The international community has become accustomed to purely relying on "sticks" to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. The question is: Why will North Korea comply if it does not receive any "carrots" in return? From North Korea's perspective, the outside demand for its de-nuclearization is completely unacceptable and unfair. North Korea has proved resilient enough to resist sanction after sanction. It is time that the international community changed its approach now.

Hillary Clinton mocked President Donald Trump’s Twitter diplomacy on Tuesday, warning that it’s ineffective in pressuring North Korea to stop its saber-rattling.Clinton stressed in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour during a Women For Women International charity luncheon in New York that negotiating is key in getting the North Korean regime under control.“Negotiations are critical, but they have to be part of a broader strategy, not just thrown out on a tweet some morning

Ryomyong St is the third prestige project in as many years in the North Korean capital, and by far the largest, said to have nearly 5,000 apartments, which according to authorities will be distributed free to deserving citizens. Its name translates as “illumination” and the official KCNA news agency described it as “an icon of modern street architecture and a fairyland representing the era of the Workers’ Party”.

According to state media, the last high-level North Korean delegation to visit Algeria was led by then Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong who attended a conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in mid-2014. But since then North Korea and Algeria have stepped up bilateral cooperation. In November 2016 the two countries signed a cultural exchange agreement and an agreement on friendly relations between North Korea’s Kim Il Sung University and Algeria’s University of El-Djezair No. 1.

President Trump must avoid at all costs a direct military confrontation with North Korea, which has a long history of engaging in brinksmanship. The United States has been successful in defusing past crises by working in partnership with U.S. allies in the region. Today, China calls for restraint, and South Korea is urging a diplomatic solution. [...] President Trump could demonstrate his art of deal making by advancing the only solution that’s ever worked: diplomacy and engagement.