North Korea had a couple of talks with the Trump administration but unfortunately all the attempts made from Trump’s side went futile. Trump wanted Kim to stop North Korea’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) programme, but the recent satellite images have proved that Trumped failed to make a deal.
On 4 July 2017, Pyongyang announced that it has tested an ICBM named Hwasong-14 which can hit “any part of the world” and again on 28 July 2017, the second ICBT test was made which could reach the altitude of 3000km. North Korea has tested Hwasong 5/6, Pukguksong, Nodong, and Musudan which have ranges of 1000km, 1000km, 1300km and 3500km respectively. Its KN-14 and KN-08 which have the ranges of 10000km and 11500km are under development.
The reasons behind ICBM
The major reason for North Korea’s development of its ICBT is the power projection to the world. North Korean leaders believe that Saddam Hussein would still be alive if he had possessed weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, for them nuclear weapon is a a necessity for the survival of their regime. They are not ready to believe any promises from the West regarding economic cooperation or security arrangements as they have learnt lessons from Libya and Ukraine. After agreeing to surrender his nuclear programme in exchange of economic development of his country in 2004, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was killed by the rebels with the support of the Western powers. Ukraine, believing the security guarantee given by the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, decided to remove its nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it was finally disappointed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
Why negotiations failed
The major reason is that, the North Korean decision makers have little enthusiasm towards any negotiation compromising their nuclear programme as they see it as their own death warrant. Moreover, no economic sanctions from the US or its allies would affect North Korea as China dominates more than 90 percentage of its foreign trade.
In the recent Singapore summit, analysts believe that the USA had over expectation with the demand of denuclearizing the peninsula. Kim Jong Un is never ready to give up nukes as it’s necessary for his survival.
The Vietnam summit which followed the Singapore summit was also failed as Kim wanted all sanctions to be lifted but Trump wants Kim to give up more before taking off sanctions.
As there is no proposal or schedule from both the sides for the next summit and the rebuilding process of its missile launch site may put both the countries in the starting point again.