SHIFT IN U.S.-NORTH KOREA RELATIONS

Apr 29, 2018 Editorial, Features / Columnists

For almost three decades, no diplomatic relations existed between the United States and North Korea which the U.S. labelled a rogue state. And to make matters worse, several U.S. presidents refused to have any high level meeting with Korea’s leaders dating back to Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il. Now there is Kim Jong-Un.
However, this is about to change with President Trump. The United States and North Korea are about to be engaged in direct talks at extremely high levels. Contacts between the two countries in recent weeks have involved US intelligence and State Department officials, including the Secretary of State designate, Mike Pompeo.
Trump has stated there is a lot at stake for the US. The summit, which was first proposed in March for late May or June would be an unprecedented meeting between the two countries. It would help ease tensions over Pyongyang’s development of nuclear missiles.
President Trump’s decision to meet Kim Jong-Un was both shocking and surprising. Just months ago, the two leaders were trading personal insults at each other. But in a big shift, Mr. Trump suggested that President Kim Jong-Un is open and honorable. It is a sharply different assessment of the North Korean leader President Trump once denounced as “Little Rocket Man.”
President Trump is very optimistic about the meeting and has stated that it would be great for the United States, North Korea and the world. He believed that the tough talks from his administration, his repeated threats to use military force against North Korea and the pressure from several layers of United Nations suffocating sanctions forced Kim Jong-Un to use the Winter Olympics in South Korea to abruptly shift to talks.
The meeting was brokered by the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-In, who in a move aimed at reducing military tensions between the South and North has halted the annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States.
In order to create a peaceful mood for the meeting between North and South Korea scheduled for Friday April 27, both countries have stopped blasting music and propaganda at each other across the demilitarized zone. The goal is to end a state of war that has existed between the two countries since 1953.
South Korea’s president has signaled to the US that Kim Jong-Un has embraced denuclearizing without demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula. The move follows North Korea’s recent peace gestures that it will shut down its nuclear test facilities in Punggye-ri and suspend all nuclear tests and long-range missile launches.
The promised cessation by Kim Jong-Un to halt its nuclear tests represents another apparent concession as the country maneuvers ahead of the landmark summit with the United States. Although no location has been selected for the meeting, speculation has centered on a range of sites, including Pyongyang, the demilitarized zone between the Koreas, Stockholm, Sweden, Geneva, Switzerland and Mongolia.
If the summit takes place as scheduled, Mr. Trump will be the first sitting U.S. President to meet face-to-face with a leader from North Korea.
Japan, Australia and several European nations, including Britain, France and Germany have hailed the meeting as meaningful progress. Numerous other countries including Sweden, which has strong diplomatic relations with North Korea, have welcomed the announcement.
China, which is North Korea’s main ally has praised the move by North Korea as a step on the path to peace and that the denuclearization of the peninsula, will help ease political tensions and increase economic opportunity.

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