Run down of the fluctuating Korea talks

Caitlyn Hayden, Reporter

 Earlier in the year, United States President Donald Trump traveled to North Korea to speak to the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, about their nuclear weapons program in a second summit meeting. These discussions quickly fizzled out, and Trump returned home with little to no progress made.

   However, recently, it was announced that both parties were willing to return to the conversations and continue their discussion in terms of the threatening presence of nuclear weapons. These conversations will profoundly affect both countries as each has large, powerful weapons that could easily do a lot of harm to each other. The discussions on how to deal with this looming menace will possibly relieve stress among many people who may feel safer with the weapons being in the foreign country’s hands. 

   During the summit that occurred in late April of 2018, Kim Jong Un negotiated with the leader of South Korea, Moon Jae-in. They agreed with working to create a nuclear-free Korean landscape, which proved promising to Trump’s talk with the leaders as well. However, in May 2018, Trump pulled out of the meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un, blaming his resignation from the conversation on the leader’s hostility and unapproachability at the time.

   The conversations did resume a month later, resulting in a successful signing of an agreement stating that the countries both desire peace and that the denuclearization of Korea will be made possible. Another summit meeting was to retake place in February 2019, and they soon ended fairly quickly once again due to disagreements.

   Since then, these talks have been stalled and have yet to be continued. In June, both leaders promised that the talks would be revived and sorted out once again. Much to the United States’ discontent, North Korea sent out a missile towards Japan waters on September 25, hours after once again agreeing to further conversations with Trump. 

   This creates concern and a cynical feeling towards the reliability of North Korea’s promises. The timing of the launch is very skeptical in Trump’s administrations’ eyes, as it occurred very near to the official concurrence between the two countries to resume talks about denuclearization.