North Korea Possibly Disarming

North Korea Possibly Disarming

After the historic 2018 Winter Olympics, the relationship between North Korea and the United States may be thawing.

In a surprising move, North Korea agreed to send athletes to the Winter Olympics, which took place February 9 through February 25, even though the Olympics were set in Seoul, South Korea. Ironically, the Winter Olympics started to thaw Cold War-like tensions.

Tensions rose with North Korea after a long string of tests by North Korea to develop a nuclear weapon; those tests were successful. On September 23, 2017, Donald Trump tweeted, “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man [Kim Jong-un], they won’t be around much longer!” That tweet, and several more, increased already high tensions between U.S. and North Korea.

 

After the Winter Olympics however, CNN reported, “North Korea is willing to talk to the United States about giving up its nuclear weapons, South Korea said Tuesday [March 6, 2018], in a remarkable development that followed unprecedented meetings in Pyongyang.” North Korea then clarified that “it had no reason to retain nuclear weapons if ‘the military threat to North Korea is resolved,’ and the country’s security can be guaranteed,” said Chung Eui-yong, South Korea’s national security chief.

There main reason that North Korea has previously been unwilling to give up their nuclear weapon capabilities is because of previous United States foreign policy in Libya. In 2001, then-President George W. Bush told Muammar Gaddafi, then-dictator of Libya, that “either you get rid of your weapons of mass destruction or [the United States] will personally destroy them and destroy everything with no discussion.” After that, in 2003, the Libyan government gave up their WMDs, but in 2011 the United States ousted Gaddafi anyway. The North Korean dictator may be drawing parallels between his current situation and Gaddafi’s. Also, it appears to be what Chung Eui-yong is talking about when he says that North Korea may be willing to disarm when “the military threat to North Korea is resolved, and the country’s security can be guaranteed.”

Trump responded to North Korea’s possible willingness to disarm by saying, “Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! It may be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!”

Either way, good news is good news. The further the world gets from nuclear annihilation the better.

Update:

           On Friday, the White House backpedaled slightly on Trump’s agreement to meet with North Korea. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that unless Kim Jong Un takes “concrete and verifiable actions” toward denuclearization Trump cannot meet with the North Korean dictator.

She said in full, “They have made some major promises. They have made promises to denuclearize. They have made promises to stop nuclear and missile testing. We’re not going to have this meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and rhetoric of North Korea.”

The South Korean national security adviser said Kim is “committed to denuclearization,” but there was no indication that Kim Jong Un was going to take steps toward denuclearization in order to secure the meeting with Trump. Instead, as CNN reports, “Kim only promised to stop nuclear and ballistic missile testing and said he accepted the right of the US and South Korea to move forward with joint military exercises later this year.”