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So far the U.S.-North Korea negotiations has been a bumpy ride.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requested North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to hand over to the U.S. a partial list of North Korea’s nuclear facilities when they met in Pyongyang in October. Kim refused, but instead demanded that in exchange for denuclearization, the U.S. should make a declaration for the end of the Korean War and to terminate economic sanctions.

The gulf between the U.S. and North Korea has widened as both sides continue to inflate their arguments, and the public has become wary that perhaps Kim is fooling Trump.

Kim Wants To Persuade North Korean Conservatives

If we take a step back, however, we can see that the denuclearization negotiations are advancing along the lines proposed in the agreement signed in June.

The Liberty Magazine reported after the historic Trump-Kim summit in Singapore last June that Kim has admitted defeat, but Trump made it seem as if both parties had met as equals. The final plan is to advance denuclearization negotiations while protecting the Kim regime. North Korea will aspire to become a prosperous and globally recognized country like Singapore.

Trump decided to protect the Kim regime because North Korean denuclearization would be impossible if the Kim regime were to suddenly collapse at the hands of North Korea’s conservatives.

North Korea has long been sacrificing economic progress for nuclear and missile developments, so obviously if the leaders suddenly decide to abandon their nuclear project, the conservatives in the military and political sphere may initiate a coup d’etat.
Kim needs to prevent a military coup d’etat and show improvements in the economy while slowly tackling the task of denuclearization.

His demand for the declaration of the end of the Korean War is a tool he wants to use to convince the conservatives of his loyalty to his predecessors.

Kim’s top priority is to bring about economic improvement and to win over the conservatives. Trump is taking into account Kim’s fragile position in the regime while advancing denuclearization and opening up the country to the global community step-by-step.

As long as we don’t see Trump and Kim taunting each other again like last year, it is safe to assume that the denuclearization plan is going ahead according to the agreement.