TIMES PAST
President Trump
and North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un at their
historic summit in June
A NEW CHAPTER
FOR NORTH KOREA?
The Korean War never officially ended. Now a historic summit meeting
is bringing hopes for peace. But can North Korea’s brutal young dictator
be trusted to give up his nuclear weapons? BY BRYAN BROWN
J
ust a year ago, the world Then, on the morning of June U.S. has been conducting for more
was bracing for a possible 12, 2018, the seemingly unthinkable than 40 years.
nuclear war between the happened: Bitter enemies put aside The statement also said that Trump
United States and North their decades-long hostility and recent and Kim would “join their efforts to KEVIN LIM/THE STRAITS TIMES/HANDOUT/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
Korea. In the summer of threats and vowed to work together build a lasting and stable peace regime”
2017, the isolated Communist nation for peace—at least for the moment. on the divided peninsula. If further
successfully tested ballistic missiles Trump and Kim shook hands at a talks are successful, some experts
that experts say are capable of hotel in Singapore. This marked the say, they could eventually lead to the
reaching many American cities. first time a sitting U.S. president had signing of a treaty. That would finally
North Korea’s young dictator, Kim met with a leader of North Korea. end the conflict that made their nations
Jong Un, threatened to reduce the U.S. At the conclusion of their historic enemies: the Korean War (1950-53).
to “ashes and darkness.” In response, summit, they signed a joint statement. “We’re ready to write a new chapter
President Trump vowed to unleash “fire In it, Kim committed to “work toward between our nations,” Trump told
and fury like the world has never seen” complete denuclearization of the reporters. “Yesterday’s conflict does
on North Korea. A nuclear conflict Korean Peninsula.” In return, Trump not have to be tomorrow’s war.”
seemed more likely than at any time said he would suspend military But critics warned that North Korea
since the end of the Cold War (1947-91). exercises with South Korea, which the has failed many times before to live up
18 UPFRONT
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to its promises. And it remains to be seen
whether anything has really changed.
“What the United States has gained
is vague and unverifiable at best,” said
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,
a Democrat from New York. “What
North Korea has gained, however, is
tangible and lasting. By granting a
meeting with Chairman Kim, President
Trump has granted a brutal and
repressive dictatorship the international
legitimacy it has long craved.”
North Korea is an authoritarian Nearly 6 million
state. Millions of its people live in Americans served in
the Korean War.
poverty. And anyone who challenges
the country’s leaders can be arrested
and forced to work in labor camps, or forbidding them from using their Chinese government. The West feared
simply be killed. North Korea’s leaders language. During the war, the U.S. that Communism was spreading. So in
have spent much of the country’s allied with the Soviet Union against June 1950, when North Korea attacked
money developing nuclear arms. For Japan. When Japan surrendered in the South and occupied South Korea’s
decades, U.S. officials have considered 1945, the Americans and Soviets capital, Seoul, President Truman
an unstable North Korea to be one of agreed to temporarily believed he had to take a
America’s gravest threats(see “Danger occupy Korea. They North Koreans stand. He turned for help
Zones,” p. 13). North Korea has also divided the peninsula at are taught to to the United Nations
long threatened neighboring South the 38th line of latitude, (U.N.), which authorized
Korea. South Korea, one of America’s or the 38th parallel.
fear the U.S. its member states to fight
staunchest allies, is a modern democracy The Soviets controlled the northern the invaders. Though 16 countries
with a thriving high-tech economy. half. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and would eventually send troops, most
So how did we get here? U.S. President Harry Truman initially were South Koreans and Americans.
agreed that a united Korea’s future
North vs. South leaders would be decided by elections. The 38th Parallel
The current hostilities date back But the Cold War was deepening. Early on, the U.N. forces, led by General
to World War II (1939-45). Japan This long contest for global influence Douglas MacArthur, seemed poised
had long occupied Korea, brutally pitted the U.S. and its democratic allies for victory. After retaking Seoul in
repressing its people and even against Communist nations led by the September 1950, they began making
Soviet Union. Stalin soon refused to their way across the 38th parallel and
RUSSIA participate in the Korean elections. toward North Korea’s border with China.
In 1948, a U.S.-backed government But in late November of that year,
CHINA became the Republic of Korea—or Mao sent some 300,000 Chinese troops
Sea of South Korea. The Soviet-backed North to aid North Korea. Outnumbered, the
NORTH Japan
(East Sea) then declared itself the Democratic U.N. forces were soon in full retreat,
KOREA People’s Republic of Korea. Despite the pushed back below the 38th parallel.
DMZ
Pyongyang “Democratic” in its name, it was headed With the war at a stalemate, peace
38TH PARALLEL by a Communist named Kim Il Sung, talks opened in July 1951. It took
Seoul a former major in the Soviet army and two years of slow negotiations for
AP IMAGES (KOREAN WAR); JIM MCMAHON (MAP)
Yellow SOUTH Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. representatives from the U.S., North
Sea KOREA JAPAN He quickly gained Korea, and China to finally sign an
N dictatorial powers. armistice. That left the North-South
ASIA
W E Then in 1949, border close to where it had been at
S Area of
PACIFIC Communists under
detail
OCEAN
the start of the war. The agreement
0 50 MI East Mao Zedong won a created a 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized
INDIAN
China OCEAN civil war in China and zone (DMZ) that would serve as a
0 100 KM Sea AUSTRALIA
seized control of the buffer between the two countries.
Primary Source Activity: The Truman Doctrine at UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 19
Timeline NORTH KOREA
American troops
training in South Korea
1945 1950 1953 1994
Division The Korean War Cease-fire Kim Jong l
After World War II, Korea is The Korean War begins when The war ends in a stalemate, Kim Jong I (above) becomes
divided, with Soviet troops North Korea invades South with a cease-fire but no peace North Korea’s dictator, taking
occupying the north and Korea. American-led U.N. treaty. Tens of thousands of over after the death of his
U.S. forces in the south. In troops defend South Korea; U.S. troops (above) remain in father, Kim I Sung. The
1948, North and South Korea Chinese troops fight alongside South Korea to guard against country remains closed off
become separate nations. North Koreans. another possible invasion. from most of the world.
But the peace was incomplete. A 2014 U.N. report estimated that up
South Korea was unwilling to accept
anything less than a unified Korea.
Side by Side to 120,000 political prisoners are held in
camps in North Korea. In 2013, Kim even
As a result, the nation refused to sign North Korea | South Korea ordered the execution of his uncle—his
the armistice. To this day, no formal second-in-command and mentor—for
Population
peace treaty has ever been signed. The 25 51 allegedly plotting to overthrow him.
war left an estimated 5 million dead, million million Kim is now the third generation of
including nearly 37,000 American despots to rule North Korea, after his
soldiers. It has technically never ended. 25 51 father and grandfather. All three Kims
Today, the Korean Peninsula’s million million have relied on stoking fear of America
DMZ remains one of the most to keep their people loyal.
heavily secured borders in the world. “It’s very useful for an authoritarian
Hundreds of thousands of North and Life Expectancy government to have an outside enemy
$1,700 $39,000
71 83
25 51
South Korean troops stand guard that they can point to all the time,”
against attack by the other country. million million says Kathryn Weathersby, a history
The U.S. has also kept about 23,000 professor at Korea University in Seoul.
troops in South Korea, to prevent
years years
$1,700 $39,000
THREE LIONS/GETTY IMAGES (AMERICAN TROOPS); XINHUA/EYEVINE/REDUX (KIM JONG IL)
an attack from the North. A New Beginning?
Per Capita GDP
In the past two decades, the U.S. has
An Authoritarian State tried negotiating with North Korea
$3.8 $572.7
In the years since the war, South billion billion over its nuclear weapons program
Korea has risen from being one of the $1,700 $39,000 and punishing it with tough economic
world’s poorest countries to having the sanctions. Neither approach has worked.
11th-largest economy in the world.
$3.8 $572.7 Trump took office in 2017,
billion billion
North Korea has remained stuck criticizing his predecessors, Barack
in time. It’s not far removed from Number of Cellphones Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill
the kind of totalitarian “Big Brother” Clinton, for failing to contain North
state depicted in George Orwell’s Korea. He’s vowed to get tough with
1984. Most North Koreans still don’t $3.8
3.6 $572.7
61 the Kim regime. Trump and Kim soon
have access to the internet, and the billion
million billion
million began a verbal war of nuclear threats
government controls all media outlets. that greatly escalated tensions.
North Korean children are taught to But the Winter Olympics in
worship the Kims like gods. 3.6 61
SOURCE: WORLD FACTBOOK (C.I.A.)
Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February
million million
20 UPFRONT • UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM
450 51,697
1995 2006 2011 2018
Famine A Nuclear Power A New Ruler Today
A series of droughts and North Korea performs After Kim Jong I’s death, his President Trump and
floods lead to a massive an atomic weapons test, youngest son, Kim Jong Un Kim meet to discuss
famine that kills more than confirming that it has (above center), takes over. He denuclearization. But it is
1 million North Koreans. become a nuclear power proves to be as ruthless as his uncertain whether the historic
despite efforts by the U.N. father and grandfather. summit will bear fruit.
and the U.S. to prevent it.
However, experts point out that
the two nations have been down this
road before. North Korea made similar
agreements to abandon its nuclear
weapons program with each of the three
previous presidents. Each time, the
nation failed to follow through on them.
“Kim Jong Un has proved to be a
pretty ruthless leader in North Korea,
and I’m not sure this sort of speed
dating of a 45-minute one-on-one
meeting . . . would suggest that there’s
nothing to be concerned about,”
Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator
REUTERS (FAMINE); © XINHUA VIA ZUMA WIRE (KIM JONG UN); © CHAPPATTE, THE NEW YORK TIMES (CARTOON)
with North Korea in the George W.
Bush administration, told reporters.
Many experts say the first step to
eliminating the nuclear threat from
of this year brought a thaw. South believe that, unlike his predecessors, North Korea is reconciling the two
Korean President Moon Jae-in invited Kim sincerely wants to make peace with Koreas and finally ending the Korean
North Korean athletes and a delegation of his neighbor and America, build his War, more than six decades after
North Korean officials to the Games. That economy, and usher North Korea into a soldiers left the battlefield.
led to a meeting between Moon and Kim new age of openness with other nations. “One way or another, a peace
in April, during which the North Korean But North Korea has long viewed agreement ending the Korean War is
leader broached a meeting with Trump. its nuclear weapons as necessary to most likely a necessary element to any
The world watched the summit its survival. So whether the regime resolution of the North Korean nuclear
between North Korea will actually give them up challenge,” James Dobbins, a former
and the U.S. with North Korea remains to be seen. Trump U.S. diplomat, and Jeffrey Hornung,
great expectations has failed has indicated that he expects a political scientist, wrote recently in
and a lot of anxiety. Kim to do so. “There is no The New York Times. “Standing ready
to live up
Experts emphasize that longer a Nuclear Threat from to formally end the old war may be the
anything could happen to previous North Korea,” he tweeted key to getting there without starting a
or nothing. Some agreements. after the summit. new one.” •
SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 21
