The Trump Administration's Nuclear Policy Toward North Korea

Form the time the First Nuclear Crisis till now,successive U.S.administrations have dealt with North Korea in various ways to disarm North Korea's nuclear.In the early days of the Clinton administration,the U.S.government persuaded North Korea to temporarily freeze its nuclear facilities and suspend its nuclear activities through diplomatic means.During the period of the George W.Bush administration to the Barack Obama administration,U.S.has been relatively tough on the North Korea and unilaterally put forward many demands on North Korea while ignoring its reasonable demands,which made things worse.On the one hand,North Korea continue developing nuclear weapons and missiles and made a great progress;on the other hand,the direct dialogue between North Korea and the U.S.was almost interrupted.During the period of the Donald Trump administration,dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue has become urgent for North Korea had made a great progress on nuclear capabilities and increasing provocation to the U.S..But there are few effective means to choose.After a policy review,the Trump administration declared its policy toward North Korea is Maximum Pressure and Engagement.There are two main aspects of this policy:one is take the strong advantage of the U.S.to deepen the pressure on North Korea to express its "fire and fury";the other is to show willingness to negotiate with North Korea without preconditions.This policy strengthens and extends"strategic patience",which is also a typical coercive diplomacy.Constant pressure is a prerequisite and a guarantee,Engagement is a means to an end.The intensified pressure includes suggest UN security council to issue sanctions against North Korea frequently,so to limit it in political,economic,financial and diplomatic,at the same time make use of the economic advantages of the U.S.and its Allies to further expand and deepen the sanctions against North Korea.The goal of the Maximum Pressure is encouraging North Korea to recognize that develop nuclear weapons and carry missile test will threaten the survival of its regime,so as to make North Korea stop nuclear activities and eventually denuclearization.The purpose of the engagement is to present the U.S.government's request for denuclearization,and to supervise the implementation process.From the current point of view,the policy of Maximum Pressure and Engagement is partly works,which alleviates the Korean peninsula crisis and achieves the goal of direct negotiations with North Korea.The reasons for the Trump administration choose the policy of Maximum Pressure and Engagement to deal with North Korea are multifaceted.From the perspective of the U.S.,after North Korea successfully test the intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the U.S.mainland and hydrogen bomb,the American become increasingly aware of the threat of the North Korean nuclear weapons,and the Trump administration's sense of urgency to deal with North Korea nuclear issue has increased.However,accepting North Korea as a nuclear power is politically unacceptable,so the new government can only take measures to make North Korea denuclearization.War may be the most useful way but it is difficult to carry out and the price is too high.Besides,South Korea and China strongly oppose U.S.act in this way,so it is not an easy choice.North Korea will not voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons,so the U.S.can only take measures to force it to do so.Another important factor is the new South Korean government's commitment to achieve peace on the peninsula,which has given a boost to the Trump administration's Engagement policy.The DPRK-U.S.contacts began with the inter-Korean contacts.Moon Jae-in government has eased DPRK-ROK relations,helping achieve direct negotiation between the DPRK and the U.S.This is a factor that cannot be ignored in this round of diplomatic contacts.Although the two summits sounded encouraging,the two countries did not make a real deal in denuclearization.First of all,the problem lies in the significant differences between the two countries on the most critical issue-denuclearization,one is about what kind of denuclearization they want,the two countries have their own definitions:For U.S.it means North Korea complete,verifiable,irreversible denuclearization,targeting North Korea's nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction;North Korea claims that denuclearization is the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula--eliminating the nuclear threat to North Korea on the peninsula,which is obviously richer in content and more participator involve in.Second,the two countries also have different views on the way to achieve this goal.North Korea hopes that the two sides can "act to act" in the process of denuclearization,that is,North Korea's nuclear denuclearization will go hand in hand with compensation from the U.S..After adjustment,the U.S has determined a"phased,final,verifiable" route.Although differences are narrowing,they still exist and remain an important obstacle to North Korea's denuclearization.In addition,North Korea has always paid more attention to the issue of security,one of the requirements of denuclearization is he U.S.provide security guarantee for it,but that is not the main concern of the U.S..Since the reconciliation between North and South Korea,it has been mentioned to end the Korean War and sign a peace treaty,which is also one of the security guarantees demanded by North Korea.The U.S.refuse to do more on this is not conducive to North Korean-US interaction on other issues and will prevent North Korea from eventually denuclearization.Over the past two years,the Trump administration has adjusted its nuclear policy and temporarily break the deadlock in the DPRK-US nuclear negotiations,but the key issues hindering North Korea's denuclearization remains,which is not good for the further implementation of Trump's nuclear policy and the final settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue.The Trump administration needs to bridge the differences between the two sides,and take into account of the reasonable demands of North Korea in order to achieve North Korea's denuclearization.