The discussion concerning the highly hyped meeting between the United States Leader, Donald Trump and North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearization appears confused or nonexistent about one crucial issue that could pose a challenge to any real deal and may set up some cognitive discord between the two nations.
When Trump and other US officials speak of their objectives at the summit (and, presumably, later talks to hammer out the particulars of an agreement in principle) they give an account about an accord to permanently to ‘denuclearize’ North Korea, a country that has established an arsenal nuclear weapons, since the detonation of its first atomic bomb in 2006.
Naturally, they have indicated that the repeated lies in the past by North Koreans make it difficult to trust them. And thus, for any acceptable agreement, Pyongyang must accept intrusive inspections to prove their 100% compliance — a condition that would, seemingly, be at least as uncompromising as the agreement in 2015 on Iran nuclear plan,which the Obama administration brokered with five other countries. During his campaign, Trump had fulminated against that deal claiming that it was not tight enough.
From the fact that, different from Iran, North Korea already has nuclear weapons and some industrial facilities capable of developing and maintaining them, any attempt of pushy verification will need to be stringent enough to minimize the risk of secret hiding places for arsenal. Therefore, the agreement should include the right to conduct surprise visits and inspection on military bases which will be done by nuclear experts and not just observers.
According to many specialists, it is highly unlikely that the North Korea regime historically known for its reclusive nature, regardless of the economic inducement offered to it, can never allow a system of pervasive, lasting meddling, which will pry open society that is tightly closed. As ruthless autocracies go, Iraq of Saddam was a paradigm of openness comparing it to North Korea.
However, there is another problem. While US leader and other officials are speaking of denuclearizing North Korea, the Korean leader has only settled to the “complete denuclearization” of the Peninsula of Korea only. Just that one difference means that even if Kim agrees to intrusive intrusion in the rarest circumstance, he will insist, inexorably and at the least, on equal rights for inspection in locations in South Korea. It is notable that “reciprocity” is a word that Trumps likes to use repeatedly, syllable-by-syllable when discussing trade, like a young pupil that are attempting to master. However, he may not want to hear the same sound when North Koreans utter it.
