While attempts at denuclearization of the Korean peninsula aren’t exactly breaking news, the seemingly constant back-and-forth bickering between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is becoming almost comical, like the world is watching one long, intense, live-action episode of Tom and Jerry.
In August, as Al Jazeera reports, the IAEA observed that North Korea seemed to have no imminent plans to denuclearize. This does not surprise me at all, seeing how North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has acted in the past when he’s asked to put his toys away. The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is going to be a long and complex task, one that may result in serious conflict, whether it be between North Korea and the United States alone, or more countries get involved, such as China and South Korea. I found it fascinating that they’re constructing plutonium extraction plants so that they can reuse some of the resources they spent on previous missiles; I didn’t even know that type of science existed.
An article was published earlier this week by Al Jazeera stating that the North Korean and United States leaders have agreed to meet again, which, in my opinion, could end up being even worse than the one before. While nothing explosive happened at their meeting in April, nothing got solved either, and now that Trump has numerous internal affairs and conflicts to try to disguise as “fake news” to the public, he might bring a different, more hostile approach; that’s obviously my own editorializing, as much of this post is, but it will be interesting to see how Trump handles this meeting, not only because of domestic tensions but also with the developing trade issues with China, an ally of North Korea’s.
The lack of ballistic missiles as a sign of progress or “good faith” doesn’t seem concrete enough to call it good faith, as that could just be a strategy of Kim Jong-un’s to stall us so that he can come up with a concrete plan of attack or surrender or whatever he plans on doing. I think the United States Presidential Administration also could be over-analyzing the military parade so that the President’s supporters will continue to back him, thinking he’s finally gotten Kim Jong-un to back down.
I will most definitely be following this story (as a lot of people in the U.S. are I’m sure) even after I no longer am required to write a Regional Report analysis post on it, and might even decide to post my thoughts to this blog, so stay tuned!