On Friday, April 27, I awoke at noon to the bombshell news that North and South Korea are finally ending formal hostilities with each other after over sixty years of perpetual war. Both countries also agreed to get rid of all of their nuclear weapons. While I was very glad that the chances of death by nuke were greatly reduced, the news left me extremely confused. Kim Jong-un has been clinging to his nuclear weapons like they were his children for years, and all of a sudden he is more than willing to give them up. This spurs the question: why?
While nobody really knows for sure except the man himself, it is widely believed that Kim Jong-un uses the threat of nuclear force as a deterrent against an American invasion. This is most likely why he agreed to denuclearize on the condition that America does not invade. When looking at all of the things swirling around North Korea, there is only one major variable that has changed, and that variable is Donald Trump. Yeah, I'll give Trump credit for this one, but not in the way that most might. Kim used nukes as a way to stave off American aggression. Now, America has a president who might not give a damn about starting a nuclear war, which makes Kim Jong-un's strategy useless. This fear that there is nothing holding Trump back from a full-on invasion is likely the reason North Korea has come to the negotiating table. They're just as scared of what Trump will do as we are.
Now that peace has been brokered, what does this actually change, if anything?
For starters, the two nations are still not friends, they're just not at war with each other anymore. This agreement also does not unify Korea. The North and Kim Jong-un will still be committing unspeakable acts and human rights violations, which will hopefully be addressed at a later date. Also, this is all just assuming that the agreement actually gets through. Everything that has been agreed upon so far has just been word of mouth between the two countries, and Kim Jong-un has not been known as a trustworthy individual.
The United States will also play a large role, with an agreement between the two nations, having to go through them before being ratified, and they sure won't make it easy. For example, the United States wants physical, undeniable proof that Kim Jong-un will and has dismantled his nuclear test site before agreeing to any treaty.
In the end, this agreement between North and South Korea is one of the most defining moments of the 21st century thus far, but that is assuming that anything comes of it. At the moment, it's all just words, and only time will tell whether peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will actually come to pass.