North Korea Expands Nuclear Capabilities After Failed Diplomacy With the United States

On Friday, North Korea announced that it would be dropping its pursuits of a diplomatic relationship with the United States, two years after the iconic handshake between President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un.

According to USA Today, the historic meeting of the two leaders had "faded away into a dark nightmare." It also reported that Ri Son Gwon, the foreign minister of North Korea, released a statement suggests Pyongyang's most explicit intentions of giving up reconciliation with the Trump administration.

Hopes of reconciliation

Trump made history after becoming the first US president in office to meet the North Korean leader personally. One year after the confrontation, the US president stepped on North Korean soil when he met with Kim at the heavily fortified border area that separated the two Koreas, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

A third meeting between the two leaders ended in gridlock after Kim demanded US sanctions on Pyongyang be lifted before it starts working on eliminating its nuclear arsenal.

A nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vipin Narang, noted that Trump considered his first meeting with Kim as a win, and so did the North Korean leader. Narang said that the US president continued to reassure the people that there would be no war, as reported by The New York Times.

The advantage that North Korea got from the exchange was the reduced pressure on their country. Kim noted that the news came while they were still expanding their missile and nuclear capabilities.

Americans praised Trump's initiative with the North in the beginning as their first encounter marked a milestone after a quarter-century of empty promises. While the meetings seemed to be effective, the details into the agreements were full of doubts and loopholes.

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The ambiguity could be seen when the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, demanded a list of the North's nuclear facilities as the first step in denuclearizing the country. North Korean officials saw the request as a method of obtaining a target list for potential US missile attacks.

Pompeo, however, replied that he did not need a target list, which implied he already had one beforehand, but that it was to guarantee the North would hold its end of the bargain of removing its nuclear capabilities.

The list, however, never arrived, and future talks and agreements quickly deteriorated on how to implement a vaguely-worded conversation.

A failed gamble

The gamble that Trump made on North Korea has gone bust and results in him joining the list of presidents who have failed to reconcile with the North on their nuclear weapons.

According to CNBC News, former White House adviser to then-President George W. Bush, Victor Cha, said that no progress was made in accounts of the objectives of the official summits. Cha also noted that it was the front that Trump placed all of his personal capital.

The main benefit that Trump received from his attempts to denuclearize the North was avoiding a war with the country, he added.

Multiple speculations and rumours surrounding Kim's death and health had surfaced after he was missing from the public eye. Trump tweeted his excitement when Kim was reportedly back after his sudden reappearance at the opening of a fertilizer plant.