Welcome Back, Kim Jong Un. Want to Talk?

The “Where’s Waldo?” speculation over Kim Jong Un’s six-week vanishing act—was he ill? under house arrest? in a cheese coma?—might have been funny if it hadn’t involved the leader of a harsh dictatorship with a 1.2 million-man military, nuclear weapons, and enough firepower to incinerate Seoul in minutes. Now that North Korea’s supreme leader has resurfaced, it’s time for U.S. and South Korean leaders to sit down and talk with their North Korean counterparts.

Kim has been signaling his interest in engaging with South Korea since his New Year’s speech—an interest that was manifested in the high-level delegation that visited South Korea. Even after an exchange of naval gunfire and shoot-downs of leaflet balloons, North Korea has maintained its openness to dialogue and called for military-to-military talks on avoiding such incidents. Despite indications last spring that it would stage a fourth nuclear test, North Korea has so far refrained from doing so.