Summary
The everlasting talks about the nuclear weapons of North Korea is always an open discussion and on the minds of politicians. I am writing about the article, "U.S. Policy and Pyongyang's Game Plan: Will We Accept a Nuclear-Armed North Korea?," written by Evans J.R. Revere. He writes about the historical summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un that took place in 2018 about the denuclearization of nuclear weapons in North Korea. Trump visited North Korea in hopes of getting Kim to get rid of the nuclear stockpile North Korea has made, stop the nuclear weapons program, show where the labs and weapons are located to representatives from the IAEA, and to allow access for inspections from IAEA representatives. Not fully aware to the U.S. and Trump, Kim has terms of his own in order for such things to occur. He wants the U.S. and South Korea to decouple, the U.S. not to have as much of a presence in South Korea, and for North and South Korea to be together as one country like before. In other words, the reunification of Korea on the Korean peninsula. This is what the goal has been for Korea since the Korean War but has never happened.
Both sides do not trust the other side to give in to the demands of the other. Neither the U.S. nor North Korea see eye to eye on this situation. It will be a tough pill to swallow for one side to agree to what the other side wants, but does not get something in return. Things are bleak in the U.S. and North Korea relations. North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons for concern of its security and the U.S. will not give up its alliance with South Korea. The president of South Korea will not want to reunite with North Korea since they won't know which government will be in place and same with North Korea. It is a very complex situation and one that does not have a bright future or any headway, just a long lasting stalemate.
One reply on “Week 10 Post”
Krste,
Actually, the two substantive meetings between Trump and Kim Jong-un took place in Vietnam and Singapore, not in North Korea (though Trump made a one-hour ceremonial visit to North Korea through the Demilitarized Zone). The summit meeting was a disaster. Trump was ill-prepared–reportedly, he did not even read his briefing books, believing that he could use his “superior” negotiating skills to maneuver Kim. He was wrong. At this point, the US has little leverage over North Korea, and we likely will have to rely on deterrence and containment, since there is little or no chance that Kim will ever voluntarily give up nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. –Professor Wallerstein