Why is it so hard to get a nuclear agreement with North Korea?

North Korean is not going to denuclearize anymore than the United States would. Expecting otherwise is just unrealistic.

It would be completely irrational and suicidal for them to do this.

The problem, at least this time around, was that the Trumpies (Trump, Pompeo, etc.) were asking for maximum concessions from NK at the get-go. The US position was ‘total denuclearization’ by Un, before the US did anything at all. And the US wasn’t offering much anyway.

That’s not how negotiations work. Both sides come to the table and give a little and you end up somewhere in the middle. But that wasn’t the US strategy. Trump thought he could pound on the table and get his way. Oops.

A bit of devil’s advocate:

The “other side” (the U.S.) won’t agree to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, so why should N. Korea?

There are tens of thousands of US Troops in Korea, and they regularly run large scale war game exercises at sea, air and land, all around the border with N Korea. If N Korea denuclearized, would the US withdraw from the Peninsula?

@zenvelo , If NK denuclearizes, would it really be necessary for the U.S. to have all those nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons would not be a deterrent against conventional warfare. Besides, it looks as if relations between the two Koreas has been improving.

Before Trump ditched it, we had a successful nuclear agreement with Iran. Getting an agreement with NK should be much simpler.

@LostInParadise: “Before Trump ditched it, we had a successful nuclear agreement with Iran. Getting an agreement with NK should be much simpler.”

Why would any country enter into an agreement with the US as a party if they know the next administration can just drop it?

The US is a legitimate threat to NK. And the US has shown that the existence of nuclear weapons is the only thing that could keep them from getting invaded.

Nuclear weapons or no nuclear weapons no nation would invade N Korea because China will defend it.

Nuclear weapons are power and N Korea or any country does not give up power easily.

“Nuclear weapons are power and N Korea or any country does not give up power easily.”

I half think a big part of the reason the US dropped nukes on Japan was to send a message to the Soviet Union – “look what we can do, don’t fuck with us!”.

The last thing China wants as they move to control the SCS is a peaceful unified Korean penninsula with a US influence there. As long as the Kim family is carrying water for the Chinese, it will not happen.

In the beginning, North Korea wanted South Korea.
Nothing has changed.
The North Koreans have always been ones to jerk the rest of the world off. They did it constantly during the Koran conflict of the ‘50s.
The North Koreas are, figuratively speaking, flipping off the United States because the US is the big kid on the block.
North Korea wants to be the big kid on the block.
They want to be “big wheels.”
But they are merely “hub caps.”
Absolutely nothing will change until they have South Korea and the knowledge that the rest of the world will kiss their asses if they threaten everyone with nuclear missiles. And, like Castro during the Cuban missile crisis, they don’t give a damn about who gets blown to hell as long as they get their way.

Egos involved are way too big to get anything done!!!

The only way to have complete control over your nation is to keep it isolated. N. Korean leaders know if they let down their guard, and their people begin to prosper they will want more things and more liberty and they will get ideas about overthrowing the government. But at the same time Un needs to make sure the rest of the world stays out of their business. You can’t let everyone around you build weapons of mass destruction and you not do the same. You risk and invasion.

But he has to put on a show for the people of his nation. I’m trying to reason with other nations about lifting sanctions and helping us out but they are unreasonable. They want us to become vulnerable so they can come in here and slaughter us all. But together we will show them how great we are. It worked for his father and his grandfather and it’s working for him. So why change the formula now? Especially since they still trade with China and Russia.

It’s like the scare tactics being used by trump. He wants to isolate the United States so he can have complete dominion.