It looked like a major buckling at the knees, my friend. Like a cooked spaghetti stick. Who in their wildest dreams saw this coming? No one.
You don't think NK is going to give up its nukes and ICBMs after working so hard on then for decades?
He might not have a choice, and I believe he will when all is said and done. We're all going to witness this within the next 3 or 4 years. He has no choice as the sanctions have crippled the country to the point where he had this buckling we just witnessed that we never thought would happen. 34% downfall in North Korea's export just in 2017! You do realize how devastating that is, right? And all this with the backing of China which was the cause of it. And I hate to say it knowing quite well how I feel about the orange orangutan, but he's played this card perfectly, using the US' trade deficit with China as leverage to pressure Xi to pressure Kim. NK will have no choice but to "denuclearize" the peninsula and nothing short of that will appease this administration. If he doesn't, he might not last long himself let alone the country with the economic pressure it's facing, which will only get much worst.
What NK has been saying itbis willing to do is suspend testing of nukes and ICBMs.
It's already shut down the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and destroyed several tunnels by filling them up permanently and has agreed on an ICBM moratorium. Not a single ICBM to be fired and these are all only "preconditions". So yes, there has been an unprecedented buckling at the knees that none of us saw coming.
Kim is only meeting Trump because meeting the President of the United States, as an equal on neutral ground, as both nuclear countries, will legitimise NK and give it a huge amount of prestige worldwide.
Why would he care about prestige? If anything this shows how bad his knees buckled. I think you're ignoring the economic impact that he's felt and the actual danger to his position as the country heads towards economic disaster. These are matters way beyond countries who are capable of sustaining their economic needs let alone growth (which makes the Iran situation interesting). These sanctions are crippling the country and now he sees the South Korean president extend a hand over the DMZ and Kim not only goes there to shake it, he runs.
The problem he has is a conflicting one; his "byungjin line" which refers to the simultaneous development of a powerful, nuclear state alongside a more prosperous economy and he might've reached the former, but he's having major problems with the latter. Makes us wonder how Iran will handle the same pressure?
When a rather poor country with a GDP of $17 billion loses 34% (1/3 of its total economy) in just one year, you have a lot of problems as those around you who are protecting you and your power start to dislike the situation.
I realize Iran is a different breed and it's situation is largely different, but in the end the sanctions will take their toll especially with this administration that's willing to go places none of the previous ones ever did or wanted to. The other difference is Iran doesn't have a single, dependent export partner and has a larger diversified export model which includes Europe, so it stands on much stronger grounds than NK. I'm guessing it's going to hold on a lot longer. Question becomes, do the people stay supportive of that or do they end up having enough of it and even if they go to the streets, IRGC is not an easy nut to crack. But the problem then becomes if "the outside forces" see an unjust happening, do they then get involved this time or not? It's going to be interesting to see how both of these situations transpire from here on.
At least Iran would continue to sell oil to Europe since I doubt even the Trump administration would be willing to sanction European governments for importing oil.
This might be where the orange guy goes. 60% of Iran's economy is oil-based. I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that would be the target area that will hurt the most.
