After a long hiatus, the day came and Donald Trump, the President of the United States met the North Korean leader Kim Jong–Un in Singapore. They had a warm handshake and it was a great spectacle for the cameras and media. It was an important summit that was supposed to bring an end to North Korea’s nuclear program and also the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Many thought that the meeting would never happen after the dispute between both leaders earlier in the year in regards to who had a bigger nuclear button. In addition, Donald Trump had earlier cancelled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, blaming increasingly hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang as a reason on the 24th May 2018 before making a complete u-turn to get on with the summit on the agreed date.What came out of the US-North Korea Summit was an agreement signed by both Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un which had four main points.
- “The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.”
- “The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean peninsula.”
- “Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
- “The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”
The New York Times (2018, 12 June), The Trump-Kim Summit Statement
Without reading between the lines, those are just words made up to make sure that there was some sort of agreement signed by both leaders and to also make sure that Singapore’s US$ 20 million didn’t go to waste. To be fair, these four points could have been signed and agreed even without a summit. It seemed as though that the United States has forced North Korea to agree to all the terms signed. But in reality, the United States has actually recognised North Korea as a nuclear state by pushing and shoving them for total denuclearisation of North Korea. In addition to that, Kim has just showed the world that the United States actually views North Korea as a threat. This is hugely significant because what more do you want than to have a major power like the United States acknowledge you as a threat. North Korea actually made the United States President fly half-way around the world to attain the status as a major power as they have long viewed a meeting with the United States to be recognised as such. North Korean nuclear capabilities forced the United States to have a dialogue before thing became worst.
Next, peace in the Korean Peninsula, North Korea for the time being do not need to worry about joint military exercise between United States and South Korea because even Trump acknowledged that the United States military exercises as “provocative”. This is a huge boost for North Korea because they have been asking for the United States to suspend military exercises for a long time now and he has provided that promise.
Another jackpot for Kim Jong Un is that the United States has also pledge to provide security guarantees to North Korea which is indeed important to the continuation of his regime. Kim Jong Un has sustained his regime and will definitely stay in power as a dictator for many more years to come.
About denuclearisation, North Korea has committed to “work towards” complete denuclearisation. “Work towards” does not mean immediate denuclearisation and “work toward” also doesn’t give a time frame on when will North Korea denuclearise or it does not even indicate that North Korea will totally suspend their nuclear programs. In addition to that, nothing has also been said about North Korea’s ballistic and long range missile testing, uranium programs as well as inspection in their nuclear sites. There are no details whatsoever and Kim emerged victorious again. Trump needs to understand that North Korea has been committing to the denuclearisation since 1992 and they are doing the same in 2018. In regards to human rights, Trump indeed realised that North Korea has issues but sort of backed up North Korea by saying that “it’s rough in a lot of places, by the way.” This basically meant that human rights issues in North Korea isn’t that bad.
Kim Jong Un also received international recognition from the summit as they was continuously praised by the President of the United States for having a great personality and as a man that loved his country. In addition, Kim Jong Un was also praised as being a talented man and Trump basically became good friends with Kim.
Overall, assessing the Kim-Trump summit, it may be said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un emerged victorious in this summit and had the better deal in the agreement. Without giving up anything major except a vague agreement on denuclearising, North Korea received a huge international recognition, was able to suspend military exercises between South Korea and United States, prolonged their regime through security guarantees and Kim Jong Un was praised by the President of the United States. Credit should also be given to South Korean President Moon Jae In for putting his effort in making this summit a reality after Trump cancelled it earlier. In accordance to geopolitics, the agreement signed by both Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un is also subject to an agreement from China and Russia as the summit would not have happen without assurances from both the countries mentioned.
There are further recent evidence to Kim Jong Un’s diplomatic victory during the US-North Korea Summit. This is because despite pledging to work towards denuclearisation as stated in the agreement of the summit, reports have emerged two weeks ago that North Korea is upgrading its nuclear research center at a rapid pace (Cheng, 2018). This is according to the satellite image from 38North which is part of a Washington based think tank The Stimson Center had shown two weeks ago that the Yongbon Nuclear Scientific Research Center is undergoing infrastructure upgrades (Chandran 2018). The development at the center includes complete modifications to a plutonium production reactor’s cooling system, newly erected small buildings and continued construction on various support facilities (Hincks, 2018).
In addition to the development at their nuclear facility, North Korea and Kim Jong Un has also been able to withstand the all or nothing approach that was shown earlier by the United States and Donald Trump. United States looked to have soften their approach on North Korean as their supposedly strengthened grip on them have loosen a little. On Thursday, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to North Korea for talks in hope to agree on a possible concrete plan for North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. This will be Pompeo’s third visit to North Korea and it seemed that the United States are under more pressure to deliver and stand by the agreement that was signed while North Korea are definitely not in a hurry to oblige to the agreement as there are more focused on developing their nuclear centers. Pompeo’s visit to North Korea also shows a little desperation and at the same time it brings the perception that North Korea is definitely in charge of the situation rather than the United States.
