June 12th. This day is widely observed as Superman Day. But this year, in fact, June 12th was a day which involved “Supermen”. The historic Trump-Kim summit was held in Singapore on this very date. The widely speculated event marked a turning point for both the nation-heads. Well, at least for Kim Jong-Un. With both the troupes attaining largely criticized decision-making skills over the years, the political elites across the world went exceedingly nosy about the episode.
With the summit ending on a friendly note, it seemed as though both the sides had quite a deal. The statements made included the North Korean leader promising to “work towards complete denuclearization of the North Korean Peninsula” and President Trump consenting to “provide security guarantee” to the Koreans. These very statements were enough for speculations to begin. The speculations further intensify with no further detailing provided on what actually both the sides had discussed and what had cost the United States to bring such a “favorable” decision from Kim.
North Korea promising to denuclearize their assets is like throwing all they have had into the Pacific Ocean. In other words, a waste of billions of dollars! And who would like to end threaten-your-enemies-every-now-and-then-by-shooting-projectiles-into-the-sky happiness!
This theory is additionally strengthened by the reports from North Korea. It was reported that there was an increase in the production of fuels necessary for nuclear weapons. In fact, some say the production was ON even when the two nation heads were discussing solutions in Singapore. Talking about the very deal, the North Korean leader had not mentioned that he would stop the production of nuclear weapons in the first place. All he said was could “work towards denuclearization”. This could turn out to be a shaky stand for the apparent-success related tweets of the President. The ambiguity of this statement was enough to prove how deep a ploy was set up by Kim. He actually redefined “denuclearization” in another context. What he literally meant was the removal of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan, both allies of the United States.
The shutting down of Punggye-Ri test site is considered as the only step taken by North Korea in its journey towards denuclearization. This was done weeks before the bilateral summit in Singapore. The recent satellite images of nuclear operations are, however, from Yongbyon nuclear research facility. This is quite the problem. There are no facts or information on what extent the nuclear programs have succeeded in North Korea. Even if one is shut down, how many left?
And yet, North Korea remains “no threat” to President Trump.
With POTUS reiterating his success over the media, it feels as though he doesn’t quite catch on what is happening out in the field. A successful foreign policy is something that every President wishes to have on the resume. However, acknowledgement of the facts should be considered.
President Trump had initially referred to Kim Jong-Un as a “maniac”, “Rocket Man” and the list goes on. But after the wrap of the summit, these changed into “talented person” and “smart”. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that American President had expected too much from the summit. He was even spotted saluting a North Korean general. And in return, not a single sheet of paper was submitted by North Korea explaining its nuclear expeditions.
His recent tweet “I have confidence that Kim Jong-Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake” was put up after disputed talks of Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, with the North Korean officials in Pyongyang. The talks, coming weeks after the summit in Singapore, ended in such a way that the North Koreans claimed the gestures and notions of Pompeo as “gangster-like”.
This clearly shows the level of absurdness in this whole chapter. The Secretary of State had returned empty-handed after the meeting with Kim Yong Chol, though it was actually intended to know the progress of the treaty so far.
Amidst the continual applauses from the American side, the North Koreans haven’t changed their ground yet. Only a week after the summit, Kim visited Beijing to brief them about his talks with Trump. This is the third time Kim has caught up with the Chinese President Xi Jinping this year. China’s inclusion into this confused bilateral relation can create even more havoc.
This only reinforces the belief that we are a long way from achieving world peace and denuclearization of North Korea. Moreover, the President of the United States should start considering deals that are negotiable and provide a concrete time frame of completion, if he truly wants the world to remember his presidency.
Written by:
Keerthana Gangadharan
Govt. Model Engineering College, Kochi