Most people living in the United States and most other countries consider North Korea to be an extremely dangerous and volatile nation that is under control of dictator Kim Jong Un. For many years, nations such as the United States have been wary of North Korea and their military forces, including watching them begin to build a nuclear program. Previously, Americans were not allowed into North Korea; citizens of other countries were also not easily able to enter the country, for the government spread propaganda and wished to keep their citizens from knowing the truth about the rest of the world. In 2007, a National Geographic documentary Inside North Korea aired and showed footage from inside North Korea and gave the world new information about how the citizens of North Korea are being treated, as well as a bit of how the government of such a dictatorship is organized and run.

The United States and North Korea have been on edge with each other for over 50 years. Ever since the Korean War, when the United States fought alongside South Korea against North Korea in the effort to promote democracy, North Korea and the United States have been working against one another. Communist China backed North Korea, while the democratic United States backed South Korea, trying to prevent communism from spreading and trying to keep a democracy established in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. While the two countries eventually reached a stalemate and agreed to a ceasefire, the war has never quite ended, resulting in heavily armed borders between the two countries, like the 38th Parallel, which divides North and South Korea, at almost the exact same place from before the Korean War. Communication between the North and South has been limited and sparse. Often times when South Korea attempts to contact North Korea via a communication line set up at the border, the North Koreans never pick up the phone.

Recently, there has been a lot of activity involving North Korea in the news. Much of it was news of nuclear tests that North Korea was performing, testing missiles for use and range. Many people in the United States feared that North Korea had finally become capable of attacking the country and began to worry about safety. Soon after news of North Korea’s achievements spread to the United States and the rest of the world, a false alarm alert was sent out in the state of Hawaii, causing even more of a panic, for Hawaii would be one of the closest targets to North Korea’s missiles. However, not all news of North Korea has been bad recently. Before and during the Winter Olympics in South Korea (2018), North and South Korea began speaking, which resulted in South Korea inviting North Korea to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The most recent news involving North Korea came on March 8th, 2018 when a South Korean delegation traveled to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. President Trump spoke with the South Korean president on March 8th, which is when the president and South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-Yong passed the message onto President Trump from Kim Jong-Un, saying that he wanted to meet with President Trump and that North Korea was willing to denuclearize. Later, Chung gave an announcement to the press that revealed the message that was passed onto Trump, as well as the announcement that President Trump agreed to meet with Kim Jong-Un and would do so before May. Many people were shocked at the prospect of President Trump meeting with the North Korean dictator, as well as Trump’s speedy answer. Many political news reporters were stunned and didn’t believe that Trump would fulfill his promise of meeting before May because it would not give him and his staff enough time to evaluate the situation and determine if it is completely safe. Political analysts were also quick to point out that North Korea’s promise to denuclearize and refrain from testing missiles has been said before, but the promise was eventually broken.

When I was home for spring break, I actually watched the announcement from South Korea’s national security advisor live and was able to hear instant feedback from reporters and political strategists. Most had assumed that the message from North Korea was about a potential meeting, but none had expected President Trump to have an answer already, much less a positive answer in agreement. While it seemed promising at first that North Korea would be willing to denuclearize and stop testing missiles, it was good to be aware of the past promises North Korea had made regarding denuclearizing. A meeting between the two leaders would be unprecedented and would hopefully lead to peace and cooperation between North Korea and the rest of the world. Hopefully this invitation is the first of many attempts at making peace between the two countries and the rest of the world.