Years After Historic Summits, Trump Faces an Emboldened North Korea

Donald Trump has long touted his relationship with Kim Jong Un, but if the U.S. president-elect seeks another summit he will find a North Korean leader emboldened by an expanded missile arsenal and a much closer relationship with Russia.

After trading threats of nuclear annihilation during the first year of Trump's initial term, Kim and the then-U.S. president held three unprecedented meetings in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the border between North and South Korea in 2018 and 2019.

“We would’ve had a nuclear war with millions of people killed,” Trump told Fox News last month. “And when I was in there, I got along great with Kim Jong Un.

”Many proponents of engagement welcomed the reduction in tensions but those meetings eventually stalled and failed to achieve lasting changes in North Korea. Outgoing President Joe Biden has been unable to entice or pressure Pyongyang back to talks.

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Duyeon Kim, from the Center for a New American Security, said North Korea does not seem to care who sits in the White House because Kim has made it clear that Pyongyang will march towards its nuclear milestones, and has both China and Russia's backing.

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