What a day for the history books!

June 12th, 2018 will now be remembered as the day US and North Korean affairs took a step forward in the right direction. As much as the world hates to admit it, President Trump made this all happen. There has been no other sitting President in US History that has met with a North Korean leader. While many people are praising the meeting and I agree this meeting is a step forward in improving the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea, there are some things that need to be remembered.

Just because this meeting happened, does not meet the U.S. condones North Korea's political structure at all. North Korea is not a place where you want to visit or live. Under their communist regime, the civilians of North Korea are left starving and scared for their lives. If you are under the impression that communism is the ideal way to run a society, I encourage you to do some research as to how the civilians of North Korea live.

Under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un, his father, and even his grandfather, they have shown little empathy for the civilians of their country. A communist political structure believes that no one is entitled to personal wealth/private property and that everything (including paychecks) belongs to the state.

What this means is the civilians of North Korea work for free and the government "provides" for them. The government of North Korea does not provide for their civilians whatsoever and instead of using the government money to help fight the food shortage they use it to provide extravagant gifts for their political leaders.

Before you believe whatever comes out of Dennis Rodeman's mouth, North Korea is not a good place. According to the very informative website Liberty in North Korea, there are a few things you should know before you think Kim Jung Un is a "good guy". You cannot leave North Korea without obtaining government paperwork that says you can (which is extremely rare to get). Criticism of the regime or the leadership in North Korea, if reported, is enough to make you and your family 'disappear' from society and end up in a political prison camp.

It goes without saying that there is no free media inside the country. The only opinion allowed to be voiced inside the country is the regime's opinion. Due to North Korea brainwashing its people into believing the outside world is a threat to its people, it is illegal to own a tunable radio in North Korea, there is no access to the Internet (except for a few hand-picked and monitored officials), and North Korean landlines and mobile phones cannot make international calls in order to monitor the information their civilians receive.

People caught practicing or spreading religion in secret are punished extremely harshly, including by public execution or being sent to political prison camps. After reading all this, I'm sure you're thinking this country sounds a lot like a current day Nazi Germany and that's basically what it is.

So how you should feel about the historic summit is a mix of emotions. We can be proud of our President for getting Kim Jong Un to give us back the remains of U.S. prisoners of war and those missing in action during the Korean War, proud that North Korea agreed to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and proud that this meeting could lead to future productive meetings. While these are a lot of positives regarding the summit, we should not praise Kim Jong Un at all. He is a cruel ruler who has shown no love for his country or his people.

There is a lot more work that needs to be done and Kim Jong Un does not have the best track record when it comes to political progress. So be proud but also be skeptical of the future outcome of this summit between the U.S. and North Korea's political relationship.

Read more about North Korea's political structure by visiting: https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/learn-nk-chall...