In his eight years in the White House, then-U.S. President Barack Obama failed in all of his attempts to breach Pyongyang's wall of recalcitrance. It quickly became clear to North Korea that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was unwilling to consider military action against it, a fact that made it dig in its heels and start behaving in a threatening, unchecked manner, especially when it came to the issue of nuclear weapons. It hasn't even been 17 months since President Donald Trump was sworn in as Obama's successor, and Kim Jong Un, the omnipotent leader of North Korea, has already changed his positions dramatically. Not so long ago, Kim was still making threats toward his neighbor to the south as well as Japan – and not even hesitating to send his threats of death and destruction in the direction of the American superpower.
Kim might not have been willing to cave, but he did go against his own ingrained belief that a man's home is his castle and betook himself to a dramatic summit in Singapore. He did so at a notable disadvantage to extract himself from a potentially bitter fate. He did it because he was convinced that his American opponent was willing to use military force against him and contain his rule if he persisted in firing missiles and conducting nuclear tests. Unlike Trump's ineffectual predecessor, the president has managed to project an image of determination and credibility by being an unconventional leader, who bucks convention and the rules of the diplomatic game and shows that he is willing to go all the way in a brinksmanship match.
This pattern of out-of-the-box thinking and action was distilled in the joint statement from Trump and Kim after their groundbreaking meeting. This is especially true for the remarks about Trump's willingness to eventually pull back from the U.S.'s yearslong commitment to the "nuclear umbrella" strategy that was supposed to deter North Korea from carrying out attacks using conventional weapons through the threat of a non-conventional response. This strategy, whose reasoning shaped the regional alliances that the U.S. administrations established during the Cold War, has been out of date for a long time, particularly given the nuclear challenge from North Korea. But the current president, who already sees defense pacts as an economic burden and an unnecessary risk for the American people, put the final nail into the coffin of that anachronistic thinking in one quick blow. In its place, he laid out a message in Singapore that paves the way for a new, more stable, regional order. This is, of course, conditional upon North Korea absolutely ending its nuclear enterprise.
No one disagrees that the negotiations about how and when to implement the expected deal on North Korea's denuclearization will be long and full of pitfalls. However, the affection that suddenly sprang up between the two leaders, and a variety of confidence-building measures that will go along with the process of reconciliation, created the sense that history was in the making. If indeed they translate to a new reality, they could obscure the failures and scars of the near and distant past.
We should remember that the process of normalization between Washington and Beijing took a full decade. All that remains is to hope that it will take much less time to reach full peace and normalization with North Korea. If that actually happens, the Singapore summit could turn out to set an immensely important precedent for other rogue regimes like Iran, which will hopefully come to their senses before the storm clouds gather over their heads.
As far as the White House is concerned, the success of the summit – which positioned the 45th president as a daring leader capable of making crucial decisions – could give it a tailwind of public support and more bilateral support, which will increase his party's chances of doing well in the midterm elections this November.
