“Little Rocket Man” willing to reduce nukes?

Taylor Sikora

Op-ed week 10

“Little Rocket Man” willing to reduce nukes?

It has recently come out that North Korea is willing to bargain with the United States regarding their nuclear arsenal. Not only is North Korea willing to give up some of their nuclear power, but they are willing to completely denuclearize. This has come as a complete shock, I am not sure that the United States expected this kind of statement to come from North Korea, especially not Kim Jong-un himself who conveyed this message to South Korean officials. Not only is North Korea willing to denuclearize but they also want to have a “heartfelt dialogue” with the United States and while this hypothetical dialogue is happening, North Korea will not engage in any strategic provocations, such as their nuclear and ballistic missile testing. For a very long time North Korea has said that their nuclear arsenal and all of the weapons inside have been nonnegotiable. Following these statements, President Trump took to Twitter as per usual expressing his hope for the future between all of the parties involved. President Trump also told reporters that the statements that were being expressed by both North, and South Korea were very positive and that the ability to come to an agreement where North Korea was a denuclearized state would be a great thing for the world.

While this all sounds great, the likelihood of it actually happening in my opinion is very slim. The Unites States have been negotiating with North Korea for about 27 years, on and off. Why now? What does North Korea want in return? My thought is that they will want the United States our of South Korea in all aspects, especially our military. There is no way that North Korea will just give up their nuclear arsenal without anything in return, and the threat of the United States in their backyard. I find it very suspicious the sudden diplomacy coming out of North Korea, from their initial talks with South Korea before the Olympics, the joint team, and now they are willing to denuclearize and have better relations with the United States? We are missing something, and I am sure that we will know what this is soon enough.