As the two Koreas continue to move their peace process forward in the wake of their highly successful September summit in Pyongyang, the Trump administration, along with military-industrial think tanks and journalists who influence US policy, have shifted their collective indignation away from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and toward South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

A year after threatening Kim with a "bloody nose" strike unless he stopped his nuclear buildup, the Trump administration and its allies are now going after Moon's economic engagement with North Korea as a chief impediment to Pyongyang's pledge to denuclearize. Moon, in their view, has weakened Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions and military threats by moving too quickly on inter-Korean reconciliation and ignoring US demands that sanctions be lifted only after the North's nuclear disarmament.