If someone was told a year ago that North Korea would most likely end up in direct negotiations with the US and South Korea, they probably wouldn’t have believed it. Now, the peninsula is a week away from a summit between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in, with reports about what will be discussed popping up every few days. The ones that have come to mind are the ones that are saying that the North is seeking complete denuclearization, the possibility that the Korean War will officially end (hostilities ended in an armistice back in 1953, but the war itself never technically ended), and that the North has dropped wanting a withdrawal of US troops in the region from the table. All of this seems extremely unbelievable given the North’s aggression this past year before the Winter Olympics. However, they all come from reputable news sources. So if they’re all true, then what does North Korea want for all of this? Peace? Sovereignty? After a year of a war of words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un putting the world on edge, is the North sincere about wanting to bring peace to the region? In the end this might just be a way for Kim Jong-un to hold on to power without any external threats, and if he can swallow everything that the world wants him to do and not act stubborn at negotiations, then he is most definitely guaranteed to be safe in power. I may be wrong, he may indeed just want to achieve peace in the region. But given all that has happened in the past year without no definite explanation other than theories, it is very unlikely he is doing all of this for the sake of peace.
