North Korea and the US

Hailey cutter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-leader-offers-to-dismantle-nuclear-test-site--but-only-after-us-acts/2018/09/19/cbdd6a60-bb77-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?utm_term=.71a8dc881cdc

Recently, talk of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump, has been quite big. Apparently, Kim and Trump have been discussing compromises about nuclear devices. On September 19^th Kim offered to permanently dismantle one of North Koreas main sites for nuclear weapons, but only if the US did so first. Trump admitted that the offer was quite encouraging, but he isn't making any finial decisions just yet. Trump also admitted that the interactions between the two of them were ‘calm’. In my opinion, the offer isn’t even related to and solving the problem, but I do think it can be considered a step forward. The problem is that they are testing nuclear weapons, not that they have nuclear sites just in general. Even if they were to dismantle it, we would have to do the same, so we would be right back where we started.

                  While talk of the dismantling in the US, South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, has been having meetings with Kim Jong Un about moving forward with peace between the two Koreas. Personally, I think peace is reasonable, but the thought of the two countries ever reuniting doesn’t seem realistic. They have been parted for 70 years now and are technically considered to be still at war. The way their governments run is very different from each other. Also, some of South Koreas language has evolved and changed, and is now a little different from North Koreas. In general, I don’t think it work out well.

                  While North Korea and the United States seem to be making more progress than first presumed, it seems that now the two countries have reached an impasse. Both countries expect each other to make the first move. The United States expects North Korea to take significant steps forward to their nuclear dismantling, while North Korea believes that the United States needs to declare the Korean War (1950-1953) formally over first. North Korea believes that Trump has already made a promise to that in Singapore, but Trump himself states differently.

                  The whole situation seems pretty chaotic and unorganized, in my opinion. Many people even believe that we shouldn’t be discussing any sorts of matters with North Korea. Many aren’t completely sure if we can trust them either. We barely know anything about them, and they don’t truly, fully show themselves to the world. In the past, they have shown us that they are very not willing to cooperate with us, so it just doesn’t doesn't make sense to me. We are definitely taking steps towards something, but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing.

 Experts believe that North Korea has continued to build a number of nuclear weapons this year, and even if they do end up dismantling their main nuclear site, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have other ones. It would of course slow down the process of their nuclear production, but it wouldn’t at all stop them. We aren't completely sure of what they are capable of doing and we aren't exactly what they are willing to do and what steps they will take towards what is convenient to them.

Can we trust them? That is a question even Trump’s own administration is asking, although they are known to be cautious with matters dealing with North Korea. Trump tweeted “While North Korea has stopped testing missiles and nuclear devices,” at the moment, “they have NOT moved toward denuclearization”.Although we are making decent progress, Trump’s overall administration isn’t satisfied with North Koreas efforts. They believe that North Korea needs to be a lot more cooperative with their plans. Meaning that they need to make more reasonable efforts instead of the piecemeal and solitary ‘compromises’ that they are currently making. But the entire situation is still in progress and nothing in yet official, hopefully we will eventually come to an equilibrium.