In an affirmation of the sweeping success of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, lawmakers from South and North Korea are reportedly negotiating details for an official end to a decades-old war.
Pyongyang and Seoul are discussing the details of a joint statement to be delivered when Kim and Moon meet. This could include plans for returning the heavily fortified demilitarized zone to its original state.
While hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, April 17, Trump sent his blessings to the two nations.
“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,“ Trump said. ”People don’t realize the Korean War has not ended. It’s going on right now. And they are discussing an end to the war. Subject to a deal, they have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that.”
Trump and Abe discussed the campaign to maintain maximum pressure on North Korea ahead of Trump’s planned meeting with Kim. Several North Korean ballistic missiles tests splashed down near Japan.
The two Koreas have technically been at war since the 1950–1953 conflict ended with a truce, rather than a peace treaty. Tensions between the two nations have often escalated but never turned into an armed conflict.
The Trump administration is arranging the details for a meeting between Trump and Kim in late May or June. Kim satisfied Trump’s demand to put denuclearization on the table during the upcoming talks. The communist dictator also agreed to halt weapons testing and promised to not attack its southern neighbor before the talks. In the meantime, Trump ordered that strict sanctions against North Korea remain in place.
“For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility,” Trump wrote on Twitter late in March. “Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!”
Trump faced an ominous threat from North Korea shortly after taking office. Kim accelerated the program to develop a ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States and tested what Pyongyang claims to have been a hydrogen bomb.
Trump responded by spearheading an international effort to sanction the communist regime while issuing firm threats and demanding that North Korea commit to denuclearization as a premise for any talks.
Trump is a vocal opponent of communism and has used the stark difference between the two Koreas as an example of communism’s failure. The vast majority of North Koreans are destitute and famine is widespread, meanwhile, South Korea’s economy grew rapidly in the decades following the armed conflict and its culture is a global phenomenon.
“This reality — this wonderful place — your success is the greatest cause of anxiety, alarm, and even panic to the North Korean regime,” Trump said during a speech in South Korea. “That is why the Kim regime seeks conflict abroad — to distract from total failure that they suffer at home.”
