Ever since the North Korean President Kim Jong Un opened up to the possibility of peaceful relations with the world’s nuclear powers, the world has been anticipating the day when the number one power, the United States, would sit down and conduct talks to lead the tense situation between the two nations down a path to peace.
The presidents of the two nations have agreed to do this, with Trump stating that he will attend a meeting with Kim in the near future. However, Trump has recently come out to inform the world that he might just totally change his mind and reneg on the matter, putting everyone on the edge of their seats as to just what the American president will decide in much the same manner as the way in which he introduced the possibility of a military strike against Russia in his retaliation against Assad over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, and left its potentiality up in the air.
Trump recently stated that he was going to keep up “maximum pressure” on North Korea at a joint news conference with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, until they agree to renounce their nuclear weapons. Also adding to the apprehension over the upcoming summit is the matter concerning three Americans who are presently imprisoned by the North Korean government and whether or not it will be introduced by the Trump administration as a possible condition for an American participation.
However, what the American president is letting us in on about what he thinks relative to the potential meeting is that he thinks that there is a “good chance” that it could succeed, of course, in what terms that relates to is anyone’s guess. According to Reuters, Donald Trump said about the meeting
“If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.”
Additionally, he stated that his nominee for the Secretary of State vacancy in his cabinet, Mike Pompeo, has made a journey to Pyongyang a few weeks ago in preparation for the the meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader, which is supposed to aim at closing a peace deal between the two Koreas as well as America and its allies, presumably on the condition that North Korea discontinues its nuclear weapons program and discards its current arsenal.
On Tuesday, Trump stated that he thinks such a meeting could happen in late May or early June. Additionally, Mike Pompeo addressed his Senate confirmation hearing for the Secretary of State position that Trump has nominated him to, that he isn’t very confident that everything on the docket would be solved at a meeting between the two presidents, but added that his perspective is that peace is to be seen as a reward for North Korea, if it agrees to be good and play by America’s rules. Reuters reports:
Pompeo told his Senate confirmation hearing last week for secretary of state that he was optimistic a course could be set at a Trump-Kim summit for a diplomatic outcome with North Korea, but added that no one was under any illusion that a comprehensive deal could be reached at that meeting.
Pompeo said the aim would be “an agreement … such that the North Korean leadership will step away from its efforts to hold America at risk with nuclear weapons” and that Pyongyang should not expect rewards until it takes irreversible steps.
News of Pompeo’s trip came as South Korean President Moon Jae-in was preparing for his own summit with Kim, on April 27, with a bid to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War a major factor.
“As one of the plans, we are looking at a possibility of shifting the Korean Peninsula’s armistice to a peace regime,” a top South Korean presidential official told reporters in Seoul.
“But that’s not a matter than can be resolved between the two Koreas alone. It requires close consultations with other concerned nations, as well as North Korea.”
The South Korean official said he did not know if any joint summit statement would include wording about ending the war, “but we certainly hope to be able to include an agreement to end hostile acts between the South and North.”
While South Korea sees this meeting as a chance to finally see a peace deal develop, it appears that the Americans see it as a chance to score some victory points over North Korea, in apparently taking the matter not from a negotiation, but from the perspective of a sort of diplomatic battle to be won, in which America gets the better end of the deal, while North Korea should just be glad that we’re not invading them. Is sanctions relief for the North Korean regime a possibility?
With the nature of decision making that Donald Trump has presented to the world over the course of the past year, that’s uncertain, as well as whether or not he will allow a peace agreement to be brokered. For that matter, at the present time, whether or not he will even participate in such a meeting is a matter of uncertainty. All that is known is that if such a meeting is to take place, Kim Jong Un needs to give Trump some signs that he is ready to capitulate to whatever the Americans demand, or else Trump is threatening the prolong the war on the Korean peninsula, as well as the suffocating sanctions that have been applied to Kim’s nation.
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