So Trump didn't have anything to do with this then? Alrighty then.
Historically speaking North Korea has only survived because China and Russia has backed them. Europe wants a peaceful solution and in the past, America has sent foreign aid to North Korea in exchange for a treaty. This status quo was disrupted.
These events began just before Trump's inauguration. Kim Jong Un declares he has nuclear capacity and over the last year he has been testing a hydrogen bomb.
Six months ago Donald Trump went to China and agreed a coal deal (1). This helped China out. They had publicly vowed to block trade with North Korea but were too dependent on coal to actually block it.
Only a month after the American coal began arriving into China, China banned all imports from North Korea (2).With China out, North Korea only had Russia to back them while they suffered through global sanctions.
North Korea attempted to use black market transactions in order to get materials they need. The international community began stopping and detaining their ships as they tried to make trades in Russia and Syria (3).
In previous engagements European leaders and much of the rest of the world weren't willing to actually do anything besides apply sanctions. New leadership since then (particularly France) were much younger and were willing to take a new approach... essentially telling NK backers, don't deal with North Korea or else (what Trump refers to as, 'maximum pressure'). Sweden is basically the most pro-North Korea country in Europe. It's one of the few with an embassy there. They also came out against North Korea and at one point were threatening to abandon their embassy if North Korea wouldn't sit at the table.
A month ago Donald Trump publicly announced that he was willing to sit down with North Korea to discuss peace, but nuclear disarmament was a condition of these talks.
The timing of this was critical considering how vulnerable NK is right now, including the fact their recent nuclear tests have fucked up (4) and they no longer have the same support from the main country backing them, China. Of course North Korea knows this and the sort of terms they would normally demand are no longer on the table for them. They just want a long term peace treaty... because stability is valuable, their people are likely starving, and they probably ain't gonna last too much longer economically with the current sanctions and lack of support.
All this started from Trump signing the coal deal with China and changing the tactics to apply maximum pressure on North Korea.
I understand this is hard for some people to stomach but it seems incredibly moronic to me to pretend that 1, this had nothing to do with Trump, and 2, to downplay how much of an achievement this is. Try to remember that no North Korean leader since the country's inception has set foot in South Korea. And vice versa.
This is hopefully the first step to lasting peace on the peninsula and I for one welcome it.
1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...hina-visit
2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china...SKBN15X09M
3. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/14/asia/...index.html
4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/a...tion-china
Historically speaking North Korea has only survived because China and Russia has backed them. Europe wants a peaceful solution and in the past, America has sent foreign aid to North Korea in exchange for a treaty. This status quo was disrupted.
These events began just before Trump's inauguration. Kim Jong Un declares he has nuclear capacity and over the last year he has been testing a hydrogen bomb.
Six months ago Donald Trump went to China and agreed a coal deal (1). This helped China out. They had publicly vowed to block trade with North Korea but were too dependent on coal to actually block it.
Only a month after the American coal began arriving into China, China banned all imports from North Korea (2).With China out, North Korea only had Russia to back them while they suffered through global sanctions.
North Korea attempted to use black market transactions in order to get materials they need. The international community began stopping and detaining their ships as they tried to make trades in Russia and Syria (3).
In previous engagements European leaders and much of the rest of the world weren't willing to actually do anything besides apply sanctions. New leadership since then (particularly France) were much younger and were willing to take a new approach... essentially telling NK backers, don't deal with North Korea or else (what Trump refers to as, 'maximum pressure'). Sweden is basically the most pro-North Korea country in Europe. It's one of the few with an embassy there. They also came out against North Korea and at one point were threatening to abandon their embassy if North Korea wouldn't sit at the table.
A month ago Donald Trump publicly announced that he was willing to sit down with North Korea to discuss peace, but nuclear disarmament was a condition of these talks.
The timing of this was critical considering how vulnerable NK is right now, including the fact their recent nuclear tests have fucked up (4) and they no longer have the same support from the main country backing them, China. Of course North Korea knows this and the sort of terms they would normally demand are no longer on the table for them. They just want a long term peace treaty... because stability is valuable, their people are likely starving, and they probably ain't gonna last too much longer economically with the current sanctions and lack of support.
All this started from Trump signing the coal deal with China and changing the tactics to apply maximum pressure on North Korea.
I understand this is hard for some people to stomach but it seems incredibly moronic to me to pretend that 1, this had nothing to do with Trump, and 2, to downplay how much of an achievement this is. Try to remember that no North Korean leader since the country's inception has set foot in South Korea. And vice versa.
This is hopefully the first step to lasting peace on the peninsula and I for one welcome it.
1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...hina-visit
2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china...SKBN15X09M
3. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/14/asia/...index.html
4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/a...tion-china
