Friday 12th June was the two-year anniversary of the first Kim-Trump summit. This year too, the United States has continuously practiced policies that were hostile to North Korea. It continues to criticize North Korea for its lack of democracy, freedom, and believes it poses a threat to world peace due to its continuous development of military forces and nuclear program.
North Korea recently stated that it sees little reason to maintain personal ties with the United States if it sticks to its hostile policies. North Korea sees US policies as a threat and has used it as an excuse to develop its military forces and develop nuclear weapons. Kim-Trump ties go back to 2017, the United States put international sanctions on North Korea as a response to the multiple advances North Korea made in its nuclear and missile program. The United States wanted North Korea to give up its nuclear program and in return, they would ease the sanctions on them. In 2018, the Singapore summit was the first time when a sitting American met with a North Korean leader, relations between the two countries improved significantly.
The 2019 Vietnam summit was a total failure, both countries wanted swift action from each other, the United States called for complete disarmament of North Korea’s nuclear program while the latter wants swift sanctions relief. The Trump administration even resorted to threatening North Korea with preemptive nuclear strikes and regime change. Thankfully, in the past few months, the United States has agreed to negotiate a flexible approach to reach a balanced agreement.
The US Elections are coming up in November, North Korea took advantage of the situation to put pressure on Trump by threatening to stop all contact with South Korea and criticizing the United States for interfering in inter-Korea affairs. Trump hoped to use “solving the situation with DPRK” as leverage in his campaign. Experts say that the United States says it wants to reach an agreement for DPRK, but it keeps on trying to use its might.
