On the President's Desk: North Korea
Tension between the United States and North Korea is mostly a product of the Cold War, although the two nations have had confrontations much earlier. In 1866, a gunboat named the General Sherman was sent to Korea to negotiate a trade treaty. Things did not go well and the Koreans killed the ship's crew. The US retaliated in 1871 when the US once again sent a naval force to support an American diplomatic delegation sent to establish trade and political relations and to ascertain the fate of the General Sherman. When Korean shore batteries once again attacked two American warships on June 1, an expedition was launched 10 days later after the commanding American admiral failed to receive an official apology from the Koreans. Armed conflict resulted and on June 10, about 650 Americans landed and captured several forts, killing over 200 Korean troops with a loss of only three American servicemen. Korea continued to refuse to negotiate with the United States until 1882.
Korea and the U.S. ultimately established trade relations in 1882 and relations remained calm for the next quarter century. But in 1905, after President Theodore Roosevlet negotiated peace at the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had persuaded Roosevelt to accept Korea as part of Japan's sphere of influence, something the Koreans were unhappy with. Japan annexed Korea five years later. Korean nationalists unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to support their independence as part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
After Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, the United Nations divided Korea along the 38th parallel, intending this as a temporary measure. The breakdown of relations between the U.S. and USSR prevented a reunification. During the U.S. army's occupation of South Korea, relations between the U.S. and North Korea were conducted through the Soviet military government in the North. This led to further anti-American hostility from the North Koreans. On September 9, 1948, Kim Il-sung declared the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He immediately established diplomatic recognition with the Soviet Union, but not with the United States. The U.S. has never extended, diplomatic recognition of North Korea. Kim Il-Sung called the U.S. a capitalist imperialist, and compared it with Japan regarding its intentions for North Korea. In December 1950, the United States initiated economic sanctions against North Korea under the Trading with the Enemy Act. These lasted until 2008.
During the Korean War, US/UN forces occupied portions of North Korea for the two months after the Inchon landing, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. The plan was to set up a civil administration for North Korea, much as was occurring in Japan at the time. MacArthur planned to arrest North Korean generals, including Kim Il-Sung, and try them as war criminals. But soon, with Chinese intervention, the war ended in a stalemate, and the current border remained in place. The war ended after President-Elect Dwight Eisenhower made a visit to the war zone and determined that the war was unwinnable.
On January 23, 1968, a U.S. spy ship called the U.S.S. Pueblo, was captured and the crew was held prisoner before being released after negotiations in December of that year. The following year, on April 15, 1969, EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan by North Korea; 31 American service men died.
On August 18, 1976, Captain Arthur Bonifas and Lieutenant Mark Barrett were killed by the North Korean Army at Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, when the Americans were engaged in routine tree-clearing. The attack coincided with a meeting of the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at which Kim Jong-il, the son of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, presented the incident as an example of American aggression. He presented a motion calling for a U.S. withdrawal from South Korea. The Ford administration responded with a major show of force and the North Korean government backed down and allowed the tree-cutting to go ahead. They later issued an official apology.
In 1994, North Korea prevented international inspectors from verifying the regime's adherence to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The Clinton administration had accused the North Koreans of processing plutonium from a reactor to build two atomic bombs. Declassified Clinton-era documents indicate that the administration had planned for a possible war at the time. In December 1994 a US OH-58 Kiowa helicopter was shot down over North Korea. One of the occupant, the pilot, died and another was captured by North Korea and held for 13 days.
In December 2002, Spanish troops boarded and detained a shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea destined for Yemen, at the United States' request. After two days, the United States released the ship to continue its shipment to Yemen. North Korea called this an "act of piracy". In September 2005, relations between the countries were further strained by US allegations of North Korean counterfeiting of American dollars. The US accused North Korea of producing $15 million worth of false bills every year, in complicity with banks in Macau and other places.
In spite of the tensions which continued to exist, on February 13, 2007, "the Six-Party Talks" were held between the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China, and Russia to consider possible normalization of political relations with Pyongyang, a replacement of the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty, and the building of a regional peace structure for Northeast Asia. North Korea agreed to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility in return for assistance in the importing of fuel. The United States also agreed to begin discussions on normalization of relations with North Korea, and to begin the process of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. According to US Chief Negotiator Christopher R. Hill, North Korea has adhered to its commitments. The sixth round of talks began on March 19, 2007, with the topic being the future of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. In early June 2008, the United States agreed to start lifting restrictions after North Korea began the disarming process. President George W. Bush announced he would remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after North Korea released a 60-page declaration of its nuclear activities. Soon after this, North Korean officials released video of the demolition of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The Bush administration praised the progress, but was also suspicious that the Koreans did not produce any information about alleged uranium enrichment programs.
On November 4, 2007, Dai Hong Dan, a North Korean merchant vessel, was attacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Mogadishu. As U.S. Navy ships patrolling the waters moved to respond, the 22 North Korean seamen fought the eight Somali pirates in hand-to-hand combat. With aid from the crew of the USS James E. Williams and a helicopter, the ship was freed, and the U.S. crew gave aid to the wounded crew. This resulted in uncharacteristically pro-U.S. statements in the North Korean press. This occurred just as the North Koreans moved to implement the February 13 agreement with the acquiescence of the Bush Administration, and the 2007 South Korean presidential election was taking place.
Unfortunately this positive development was soon interrupted by more problems when two American journalists were arrested on March 17, 2009. The two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of Current TV, were arrested on the North Korean border in China while filming a documentary on the trafficking of women. They allegedly crossed into North Korea in the process. North Korea subsequently tried the two journalists and found them guilty of the charges, and sentenced them to twelve years of hard labor. The U.S. criticized the act as a "sham trial". On August 4, 2009, former President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang on what he called as a "solely private mission" to secure the release of the two journalists. He also was reported to have delivered a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from President Barack Obama, but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs denied this. On August 5, Kim issued a formal pardon to the two American journalists, who subsequently returned to Los Angeles with Clinton.
On May 24, 2010, the United States set plans to participate in new military exercises with South Korea as a direct military response to the sinking of a South Korean warship by what officials called a North Korean torpedo. On May 28, 2010, the North Korean Central News Agency accused the United States of staging the incident as an excuse for conflict with North Korea. In July 2010, the North Korean government indefinitely postponed a scheduled talk at Panmunjom relating to the sinking.
On March 16, 2012, North Korea announced it would launch its Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 satellite to mark the 100th anniversary of the late Kim Il-sung's birthday. This raised American suspicion and anxiety since satellite launches can be accompanied by missile launches. The United States also suspended food aid to North Korea in retaliation for the missile plans. Daniel Russel, Special Assistant to the President, flew to Pyongyang from Guam in August 2012 to monitor the situation. On December 11, 2012, North Korea successfully launched a missile. The United States strongly condemned the action as it is believed that North Korea was developing long range ballistic missiles that would reach the west coast of the US.
On March 29, 2013, Kim Jong-un threatened the United States by "declaring that rockets were ready to be fired at American bases in the Pacific." The declaration was in response to two B2 stealth bombers that flew over the Korean peninsula on the day before. The Pentagon called for an advanced missile defense system to the western Pacific on April 3. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, said that North Korea posed "a real and clear danger" to not only the United States, but Japan and South Korea as well. While visiting Seoul, South Korea on April 12, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry said "North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power". He said that a missile launch by North Korea would be a "huge mistake".
On April 26, 2013, North Korea said it had arrested a U.S. citizen. Kenneth Bae, for committing an unspecified crime against the country. On May 2, 2013, Bae was convicted of "hostile acts" and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. The U.S. has called for his release but North Korea has rejected any possibility of allowing prominent Americans to visit the country to request his release. Former Chicago Bulls basketball player Dennis Rodman, who had previously visited North Korea and was friendly with Kim Jong-un, sent a message on Twitter pleading for Bae's release. Rodman pledged to visit North Korea and attempt to free Bae. On May 2, 2014, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released an article
Two more American citizens were detained in North Korea in June 2014, once again accused of "hostile acts". On July 28, 2014, the House of Representatives voted to pass the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013, but the bill it was never passed by the Senate. In January 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama indicated that he believed that over time the North Korean government will collapse
In early April of 2017, President Donald Trump considered military options against North Korea's ballistic missile program. Some media sources erroneously reported that the USS Carl Vinsonhad been deployed to the Sea of Japan heading towards North Korea. On April 17 North Korea’s deputy United Nations ambassador said that North Korea had a "readiness to declare war on the United States if North Korean forces were to be attacked." On Twitter, President Trump called the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man” and a “sick puppy”, and promised that continued North Korean threats to America “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”. He called diplomacy with the Kim regime “a waste of time”. In reality on April 18, the Carl Vinson and its escorts were 3,500 miles from Korea engaged in scheduled joint Royal Australian Navy exercises in the Indian Ocean. Later that month, Trump stated that there was "a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea". In July 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a "Geographical Travel Restriction" which banned Americans from entering North Korea. On August 30, 2018, the ban was extended until August 31, 2019.
In January 2016, an American student, Otto Warmbier, was detained at Pyongyang International Airport after allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda banner from his hotel. He was traveling with a group of Americans, the remainder of whom safely returned home. Security footage showed Warmbier going into a banned area in the hotel and ripping out the poster from the wall and putting it in his bag. In March 2016, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, but in June 2017 was released from North Korea, after suspiciously fallen into a coma-like state. He died a few days after being returned to the U.S.
In August 2017, the Washington Post reported that North Korea had successfully developed nuclear warheads for missiles within reach of the US mainland.In response, President Trump stated that future threats would be "met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before." North Korea announced that it was examining an operational plan to strike areas around the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific, including the Andersen Air Force Base. Two missiles were flown over Japanese territory and a nuclear test was conducted. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2017, Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if the United States were "forced to defend itself or its allies". In response Kim Jong-un called the speech "unprecedented rude nonsense" and "mentally deranged behaviour".
On September 30, 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. and North Korea were exploring the possibility of talks. The next month, on October 9, 2017, US Air Force B-1 bombers carried out mock missile launches off both coasts of South Korea. Two bombers operating out of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam carried out the drills along with fighter jets from South Korea and Japan. On November 28, 2017 North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first such launch in over two months. The missile flew roughly 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.
On March 8, 2018, it was reported that a meeting had been scheduled to be held on June 12th in Singapore between President Trump and Kim John-Un. After military exercises between the United States and South Korea, Kim Jong-un threatened to cancel the meeting and on May 24 President Trump cancelled it. On June 1, 2018, Trump announced that the summit was "back on" for June 12 in Singapore after meeting with North Korean officials at the White House. President Trump met with Kim on June 12 and at the meeting an agreement was signed between the two countries calling for North Korea to reaffirm its commitment to the 2017 Panmunjom Declaration signed between North and South Korean to work towards completely denuclearizing the entire Korean Peninsula. The agreement declared a new start to US-North Korean relations between the two countries to achieve "peace and prosperity" through cooperation on a variety of issues and Trump subsequently announced that war game exercises between the US and South Korea would end.
As a consequence of this agreement, the bodies of about 7,700 U.S. military personnel who went missing during the Korean war were returned as of 2018. BThe June 12, 2018 summit between the US and North Korea included an agreement for begin repatriating American POW/MIA remains. On July 15, 55 boxes were returned. North Korea's state media declared a new era of peace following the summit. North Korea began removing anti-US propaganda.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visited North Korea in July 2018 to discuss denuclearization. North Korea is continuing with their nuclear program according to UN reports. President Trump announced cancelled Pompeo's scheduled visit in August 2018 due to insufficient progress in the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
In a September 2018 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump commended Kim Jong-Un for ceasing nuclear testing, dismantling several military facilities, releasing American hostages, and returning POW/MIA remains. Trump reaffirmed that sanctions will continue to be held on North Korea until denuclearization occurs.
In spite of some of the belligerent rhetoric that has passed between the two leaders, some progress has been made in ramping down the tensions between the two nations. Based on past history between the two countries however, any optimism must be tempered with caution and North Korea will continue to be one of the many problems on the President's desk.
Korea and the U.S. ultimately established trade relations in 1882 and relations remained calm for the next quarter century. But in 1905, after President Theodore Roosevlet negotiated peace at the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had persuaded Roosevelt to accept Korea as part of Japan's sphere of influence, something the Koreans were unhappy with. Japan annexed Korea five years later. Korean nationalists unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to support their independence as part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
After Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, the United Nations divided Korea along the 38th parallel, intending this as a temporary measure. The breakdown of relations between the U.S. and USSR prevented a reunification. During the U.S. army's occupation of South Korea, relations between the U.S. and North Korea were conducted through the Soviet military government in the North. This led to further anti-American hostility from the North Koreans. On September 9, 1948, Kim Il-sung declared the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He immediately established diplomatic recognition with the Soviet Union, but not with the United States. The U.S. has never extended, diplomatic recognition of North Korea. Kim Il-Sung called the U.S. a capitalist imperialist, and compared it with Japan regarding its intentions for North Korea. In December 1950, the United States initiated economic sanctions against North Korea under the Trading with the Enemy Act. These lasted until 2008.
During the Korean War, US/UN forces occupied portions of North Korea for the two months after the Inchon landing, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. The plan was to set up a civil administration for North Korea, much as was occurring in Japan at the time. MacArthur planned to arrest North Korean generals, including Kim Il-Sung, and try them as war criminals. But soon, with Chinese intervention, the war ended in a stalemate, and the current border remained in place. The war ended after President-Elect Dwight Eisenhower made a visit to the war zone and determined that the war was unwinnable.
On January 23, 1968, a U.S. spy ship called the U.S.S. Pueblo, was captured and the crew was held prisoner before being released after negotiations in December of that year. The following year, on April 15, 1969, EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan by North Korea; 31 American service men died.
On August 18, 1976, Captain Arthur Bonifas and Lieutenant Mark Barrett were killed by the North Korean Army at Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, when the Americans were engaged in routine tree-clearing. The attack coincided with a meeting of the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at which Kim Jong-il, the son of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, presented the incident as an example of American aggression. He presented a motion calling for a U.S. withdrawal from South Korea. The Ford administration responded with a major show of force and the North Korean government backed down and allowed the tree-cutting to go ahead. They later issued an official apology.
In 1994, North Korea prevented international inspectors from verifying the regime's adherence to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The Clinton administration had accused the North Koreans of processing plutonium from a reactor to build two atomic bombs. Declassified Clinton-era documents indicate that the administration had planned for a possible war at the time. In December 1994 a US OH-58 Kiowa helicopter was shot down over North Korea. One of the occupant, the pilot, died and another was captured by North Korea and held for 13 days.
In December 2002, Spanish troops boarded and detained a shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea destined for Yemen, at the United States' request. After two days, the United States released the ship to continue its shipment to Yemen. North Korea called this an "act of piracy". In September 2005, relations between the countries were further strained by US allegations of North Korean counterfeiting of American dollars. The US accused North Korea of producing $15 million worth of false bills every year, in complicity with banks in Macau and other places.
In spite of the tensions which continued to exist, on February 13, 2007, "the Six-Party Talks" were held between the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China, and Russia to consider possible normalization of political relations with Pyongyang, a replacement of the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty, and the building of a regional peace structure for Northeast Asia. North Korea agreed to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility in return for assistance in the importing of fuel. The United States also agreed to begin discussions on normalization of relations with North Korea, and to begin the process of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. According to US Chief Negotiator Christopher R. Hill, North Korea has adhered to its commitments. The sixth round of talks began on March 19, 2007, with the topic being the future of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. In early June 2008, the United States agreed to start lifting restrictions after North Korea began the disarming process. President George W. Bush announced he would remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after North Korea released a 60-page declaration of its nuclear activities. Soon after this, North Korean officials released video of the demolition of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The Bush administration praised the progress, but was also suspicious that the Koreans did not produce any information about alleged uranium enrichment programs.
On November 4, 2007, Dai Hong Dan, a North Korean merchant vessel, was attacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Mogadishu. As U.S. Navy ships patrolling the waters moved to respond, the 22 North Korean seamen fought the eight Somali pirates in hand-to-hand combat. With aid from the crew of the USS James E. Williams and a helicopter, the ship was freed, and the U.S. crew gave aid to the wounded crew. This resulted in uncharacteristically pro-U.S. statements in the North Korean press. This occurred just as the North Koreans moved to implement the February 13 agreement with the acquiescence of the Bush Administration, and the 2007 South Korean presidential election was taking place.
Unfortunately this positive development was soon interrupted by more problems when two American journalists were arrested on March 17, 2009. The two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of Current TV, were arrested on the North Korean border in China while filming a documentary on the trafficking of women. They allegedly crossed into North Korea in the process. North Korea subsequently tried the two journalists and found them guilty of the charges, and sentenced them to twelve years of hard labor. The U.S. criticized the act as a "sham trial". On August 4, 2009, former President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang on what he called as a "solely private mission" to secure the release of the two journalists. He also was reported to have delivered a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from President Barack Obama, but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs denied this. On August 5, Kim issued a formal pardon to the two American journalists, who subsequently returned to Los Angeles with Clinton.
On May 24, 2010, the United States set plans to participate in new military exercises with South Korea as a direct military response to the sinking of a South Korean warship by what officials called a North Korean torpedo. On May 28, 2010, the North Korean Central News Agency accused the United States of staging the incident as an excuse for conflict with North Korea. In July 2010, the North Korean government indefinitely postponed a scheduled talk at Panmunjom relating to the sinking.
On March 16, 2012, North Korea announced it would launch its Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 satellite to mark the 100th anniversary of the late Kim Il-sung's birthday. This raised American suspicion and anxiety since satellite launches can be accompanied by missile launches. The United States also suspended food aid to North Korea in retaliation for the missile plans. Daniel Russel, Special Assistant to the President, flew to Pyongyang from Guam in August 2012 to monitor the situation. On December 11, 2012, North Korea successfully launched a missile. The United States strongly condemned the action as it is believed that North Korea was developing long range ballistic missiles that would reach the west coast of the US.
On March 29, 2013, Kim Jong-un threatened the United States by "declaring that rockets were ready to be fired at American bases in the Pacific." The declaration was in response to two B2 stealth bombers that flew over the Korean peninsula on the day before. The Pentagon called for an advanced missile defense system to the western Pacific on April 3. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, said that North Korea posed "a real and clear danger" to not only the United States, but Japan and South Korea as well. While visiting Seoul, South Korea on April 12, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry said "North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power". He said that a missile launch by North Korea would be a "huge mistake".
On April 26, 2013, North Korea said it had arrested a U.S. citizen. Kenneth Bae, for committing an unspecified crime against the country. On May 2, 2013, Bae was convicted of "hostile acts" and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. The U.S. has called for his release but North Korea has rejected any possibility of allowing prominent Americans to visit the country to request his release. Former Chicago Bulls basketball player Dennis Rodman, who had previously visited North Korea and was friendly with Kim Jong-un, sent a message on Twitter pleading for Bae's release. Rodman pledged to visit North Korea and attempt to free Bae. On May 2, 2014, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released an article
Two more American citizens were detained in North Korea in June 2014, once again accused of "hostile acts". On July 28, 2014, the House of Representatives voted to pass the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013, but the bill it was never passed by the Senate. In January 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama indicated that he believed that over time the North Korean government will collapse
In early April of 2017, President Donald Trump considered military options against North Korea's ballistic missile program. Some media sources erroneously reported that the USS Carl Vinsonhad been deployed to the Sea of Japan heading towards North Korea. On April 17 North Korea’s deputy United Nations ambassador said that North Korea had a "readiness to declare war on the United States if North Korean forces were to be attacked." On Twitter, President Trump called the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man” and a “sick puppy”, and promised that continued North Korean threats to America “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”. He called diplomacy with the Kim regime “a waste of time”. In reality on April 18, the Carl Vinson and its escorts were 3,500 miles from Korea engaged in scheduled joint Royal Australian Navy exercises in the Indian Ocean. Later that month, Trump stated that there was "a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea". In July 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a "Geographical Travel Restriction" which banned Americans from entering North Korea. On August 30, 2018, the ban was extended until August 31, 2019.
In January 2016, an American student, Otto Warmbier, was detained at Pyongyang International Airport after allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda banner from his hotel. He was traveling with a group of Americans, the remainder of whom safely returned home. Security footage showed Warmbier going into a banned area in the hotel and ripping out the poster from the wall and putting it in his bag. In March 2016, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, but in June 2017 was released from North Korea, after suspiciously fallen into a coma-like state. He died a few days after being returned to the U.S.
In August 2017, the Washington Post reported that North Korea had successfully developed nuclear warheads for missiles within reach of the US mainland.In response, President Trump stated that future threats would be "met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before." North Korea announced that it was examining an operational plan to strike areas around the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific, including the Andersen Air Force Base. Two missiles were flown over Japanese territory and a nuclear test was conducted. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2017, Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if the United States were "forced to defend itself or its allies". In response Kim Jong-un called the speech "unprecedented rude nonsense" and "mentally deranged behaviour".
On September 30, 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. and North Korea were exploring the possibility of talks. The next month, on October 9, 2017, US Air Force B-1 bombers carried out mock missile launches off both coasts of South Korea. Two bombers operating out of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam carried out the drills along with fighter jets from South Korea and Japan. On November 28, 2017 North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first such launch in over two months. The missile flew roughly 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.
On March 8, 2018, it was reported that a meeting had been scheduled to be held on June 12th in Singapore between President Trump and Kim John-Un. After military exercises between the United States and South Korea, Kim Jong-un threatened to cancel the meeting and on May 24 President Trump cancelled it. On June 1, 2018, Trump announced that the summit was "back on" for June 12 in Singapore after meeting with North Korean officials at the White House. President Trump met with Kim on June 12 and at the meeting an agreement was signed between the two countries calling for North Korea to reaffirm its commitment to the 2017 Panmunjom Declaration signed between North and South Korean to work towards completely denuclearizing the entire Korean Peninsula. The agreement declared a new start to US-North Korean relations between the two countries to achieve "peace and prosperity" through cooperation on a variety of issues and Trump subsequently announced that war game exercises between the US and South Korea would end.
As a consequence of this agreement, the bodies of about 7,700 U.S. military personnel who went missing during the Korean war were returned as of 2018. BThe June 12, 2018 summit between the US and North Korea included an agreement for begin repatriating American POW/MIA remains. On July 15, 55 boxes were returned. North Korea's state media declared a new era of peace following the summit. North Korea began removing anti-US propaganda.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visited North Korea in July 2018 to discuss denuclearization. North Korea is continuing with their nuclear program according to UN reports. President Trump announced cancelled Pompeo's scheduled visit in August 2018 due to insufficient progress in the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
In a September 2018 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump commended Kim Jong-Un for ceasing nuclear testing, dismantling several military facilities, releasing American hostages, and returning POW/MIA remains. Trump reaffirmed that sanctions will continue to be held on North Korea until denuclearization occurs.
In spite of some of the belligerent rhetoric that has passed between the two leaders, some progress has been made in ramping down the tensions between the two nations. Based on past history between the two countries however, any optimism must be tempered with caution and North Korea will continue to be one of the many problems on the President's desk.