On March 10, a speech was given during a campaign to support an election in Moon Township, Pennsylvania in the United States. On that day, before going to a speech, Trump said, “I think North Korea will do very well. I can trust the North’s intention, and my decision is not impetuous. I can now say Kim Jong-un wants peace, and it is time to do so.” He uploaded four tweets about North Korea and drew many people’s attention. Chinese President Xi Jinping said that he thanked the United States for its efforts to solve the issue diplomatically rather than a horrible alternative, and China will continue to be of help.
  In the past, under the relationships between North Korea and South Korea which were a charge of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments made a lot of progress, but with the Bush administration and Lee Myung-bak/ Park Geun-hye, the relationship began to deteriorate again. In early 2001, at the inauguration of the Bush administration, he blamed North Korea as one of the evil countries. He also expressed strong hostility toward Kim Jong-il in March, 2002 by comparing him to a spoiled brat.
  Thus, the relationship between North Korea and the United States showed no signs of recovery. However, in Korea Moon Jae-in, a new president, successfully wrapped up the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and Trump’s approval rating dropped. With this being a good environment to build up a connection, such as midterm elections. The U.S. press is likely to respond to Trump’s remarks in a somewhat positive way and to continue to monitor his unusual moves. A citizen of the United States said, “I think that Trump’s current attitude towards the North Korean situation is a better than the stance that he had before. Trump has been talking about the nuclear war against North Korea for quite a while in his tweets. So to see some restraint and some willingness to talk is a good thing. However, Trump has always been unpredictable and he already has a clear bias against having peace with North Korea. He doesn’t seem to have an actual plan on what to negotiate when the meeting does come. Overall, although things have gotten slightly better, I think that we’re still in a precarious place and things could turn for the worse really quick, but we will see.”
  In response to such reactions, Professor Kim Il-soo(Dept. of Political Diplomacy) of CBNU said, “Because of the Pyeongchang Olympics, it has made the summit meetings visible. These were also a result of the government’s effort. As President Moon said, ‘I will be the driver to fix problems actively on the Korean peninsula.’ I think there are many mountains to conquer for completing denuclearization of North Korea. North Korea will demand a peace treaty and diplomatic relations with the United States, and it is unlikely that the first meeting will be proud of a great outcome unless the United States has fully committed to denuclearization. However, if North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization is confirmed, the government of Moon Jae-in, can find some ways to end the hostile relations between the United States and North Korea. South Korea will also consult more actively. Judging by Trump’s political style, if North Korea is not fully dedicated to denuclearization, it will be progressed. China has supported this round of inter-Korean talks because it has insisted on resolving the North Korean issue through dialogue. Japan will try to intervene in the Korean issue, though Abe is distracted by historical scandals,  Japan will try to maintain diplomatic relations with North Korea. In conclusion, this round of inter-Korean talks looks positive. However, because we have experienced a vicious circle of agreements being broken, we should not expect peace to come too soon. For now, South Korea will need to actualize the North’s will to denuclearize and provide North Korea with assistance and ease the United States security concerns over North Korea.”
  Now, our nation’s response seems positive, too. Moon Jae-in will attend the inter-Korean ministerial talks in Panmunjom on March 29, ahead of the inter-Korean meeting in April. Also, on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, South Korean singers and North Korean singers sang together hand in hand, and in less than a month after that, the relations between the two Koreas have changed dramatically. In May, Trump and Kim Jong-un will meet. This trend may give us hope that the Korean Peninsula will no longer have to live as a divided nation. In the past, problems were continued even though it seemed improving relations with North Korea. However, each government is expected to have a very different effect as the leaders of each country are taking a positive attitude toward each other. I hope that the two Koreas can reunite soon so that they can meet each other, and the day will come when they are called one country rather than South Korea and North Korea.

By Nam Min-Woo
mw38@cbnu.ac.kr