Kim Jong-un is not exactly a King or an Emperor. He holds the title of "Supreme Leader" of North Korea. He has held that position since 2011. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and he is a grandson of Kim Il-sung who was the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Thus, his leadership has come about as the result of a hereditary passage of title. Following his father's death in December 2011, state television announced Kim as the "Great Successor."
During the Presidency of Donald Trump, tension arose when, in a New Year's Day speech on January 2, 2017, Kim Jong-un said that his country was in the "last stage" of preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In early August 2017, The Washington Post reported that an assessment made by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2017, claimed that North Korea had successfully developed nuclear warheads for missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The UN Security Council had passed a number of resolutions that imposed various sanctions on North Korea. In 2017, North Korea was sanctioned several times by the UN Security Council. The latest ones were imposed on December 22, 2017. According to this resolution, oil supplies to the North Korea were prohibited.
American university student Otto Warmbier was freed from North Korea in June 2017, while in a coma after nearly 18 months of captivity. Warmbier died without regaining consciousness on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States. U.S. officials blamed North Korea for his death. In July 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a "Geographical Travel Restriction" which banned Americans from entering North Korea.
Following North Korea's test-firing of a medium-range ballistic missile from its eastern port of Sinpo into the Sea of Japan on April 5, President Donald Trump had said the U.S. was prepared to act alone to deal with the nuclear threat from North Korea. On April 9, the U.S. Navy announced it was sending a navy strike group headed by the supercarrier USS Carl Vinson to the West Pacific. On April 17, North Korea's deputy United Nations ambassador accused the United States of turning the Korean peninsula into "the world's biggest hotspot." The North Korean government stated "its readiness to declare war on the United States if North Korean forces were to be attacked." On April 18, the Carl Vinson and its escorts were 3,500 mi from Korea engaged in scheduled joint Royal Australian Navy exercises in the Indian Ocean. On April 24 the Japanese destroyers Ashigara and Samidare participated with Carl Vinson in tactical training drills near the Philippines. North Korea threatened to sink the Carl Vinson with a single strike. In late April 2017, President Trump stated "There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea".
On April 24, North Korea marked the 85th anniversary of the Korean People's Army by what was said to be "its largest ever military drill," conducted in Wonsan. The following day, it was reported that the United States and South Korea had begun installing key elements of its missile defense system in South Korea.
On July 4, North Korea conducted the first publicly announced flight test of its ICBM Hwasong-14, timed to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day celebrations. The U.S. government experts described the missile launch as a big step in North Korea's quest to acquire a nuclear-tipped weapon capable of hitting the US. North Korea declared it was now "a full-fledged nuclear power that has been possessed of the most powerful inter-continental ballistic rocket capable of hitting any part of the world".
On August 8, 2017, President Donald Trump warned that North Korean nuclear threats would "be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before." The media reported that a US intelligence assessment had found that the country had successfully produced a miniature nuclear warhead capable of fitting inside its missiles. President Trump also said of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un: "He has been very threatening beyond a normal state." Within hours, North Korea responded by announcing that it was considering attacking U.S. military bases in the US territory of Guam.
On August 10, 2017, North Korean Lt. Gen. Kim Rak-gyom responded to Trump's speech of "fire and fury," calling Trump's words "nonsense" and adding that "reasonable dialogue" wasn't possible with Trump as president of the US. The North Korean governmental news agency KCNA reported that Kim Jong-un's military was considering a plan to fire four ICBMs, type Hwasong-12, into the Philippine Sea just 30-40 kilometers away from the island Guam.
On August 11, Trump wrote on Twitter: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!" Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton compared the standoff between the U.S. and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program to the Cuban Missile Crisis. On August 15, the North Korean leader said he was delaying a decision on firing missiles towards the US Pacific territory of Guam while he waited to see what Trump does next.
On August 25, North Korea fired three missiles from Kangwon Province in the southeastern part of the country. One of the missiles exploded on launch while the other two suffered critical failures in flight, splashing down in the Sea of Japan after flying a distance of 160 miles. On the morning of August 29, North Korea launched a missile which flew over Hokkaido, Japan. The missile reached an altitude of 340 miles and flew a total distance of around 1,700 miles before crashing into the Pacific. An emergency UN Security Council meeting was called for later that day to discuss the event. In a statement issued by the White House in response to the launch, US President Donald Trump said that "All options are on the table" regarding North Korea.
On August 30, President Trump issued a statement via Twitter saying "The U.S. has been talking to North Korea and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!" However Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated that "We're never out of diplomatic solutions. We always look for more. We're never complacent." On August 31, the US flew a squadron of bombers and conducted bombing drills in what US Pacific Command described as a "direct response to North Korea's intermediate range ballistic missile launch."
On September 3, at 3:31 am UTC, the United States Geological Survey reported that it had detected a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in North Korea near the Punggye-ri test site. Experts concluded that the country had conducted a sixth nuclear weapon test. North Korea claimed that they had tested a hydrogen bomb capable of being mounted on an ICBM. The blast was estimated at a yield of around 120 kilotons. On the same day, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis warned there would be "a massive military response" to any threat from North Korea against the United States. The following day the UN Security Council convened to discuss further measures against North Korea. Options included an oil embargo on North Korea, a ban on the country's exports of textiles and on the hiring of North Korean workers abroad as well as personal sanctions against Kim Jong-un. Despite resistance from China and Russia, on September 8 the United States formally requested a vote of the United Nations Security Council on the U.S. resolution. UNSC 2375 passed on September 11, but was significantly watered-down from the version that the United States had requested.
A plan proposed by both China and Russia called for a joint freeze of North's missile tests, and of U.S. and South Korean military exercises. On September 6, President Trump had a telephone conversation with China's Xi Jinping. The president then said that the United States would not tolerate North Korea's provocations, although military action was not his "first choice".
On September 14, North Korea issued a threat to "sink" Japan, and turn the US to "ashes and darkness". The next day, an IRBM was fired from near Pyongyang and flew over Hokkaido, Japan before splashing down in the western Pacific about twelve hundred miles off Cape Erimo at about 7:16 am local time. The missile traveled 2,300 miles during its 19-minute flight. On September 18, North Korea announced that any further sanctions would only cause acceleration of their nuclear program.
On September 18, President Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping discussed North Korea's continued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests and committed to "maximising pressure on North Korea through vigorous enforcement" of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea. North Korea said the sanctions would accelerate its nuclear program.
On September 19, President Trump made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly. He said that the United States: "if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man [Kim Jong-un] is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States are ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary." President Trump criticized China for maintaining relations with North Korea, calling it "an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime, but would arm, supply, and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict."
On September 20, President Trump signed an executive order that increased U.S. sanctions against North Korea. The U.S. Treasury was authorized to target firms and financial institutions conducting business with North Korea. Commenting on the executive order, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or North Korea, but not both."
On September 21, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un called Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard." He said that the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history." North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong-ho compared Trump as a barking dog and added that North Korea might be considering the largest test of a hydrogen bomb ever in the Pacific Ocean. On September 25, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho accused Trump of declaring war on his country. The White House responded that the United States has not declared war.
Near the end of the month, the President and his Secretary of State seemed to be working at cross-purposes. On September 30, Secretary Rex Tillerson stated while on a trip to China, that the U.S. and North Korea were collaborating in trying to reach a negotiated settlement with North Korea. The next day however, President Trump made a series of posts on Twitter which seemed to undermine Tillerson's efforts, claiming that Tillerson was "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea and that "we'll do what has to be done."
On November 13, North Korean soldiers unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Oh Chong-song, a defector from crossing the border in the Joint Security Area. North Korean soldiers violated the armistice agreement by firing over 40 shots in the demilitarized zone and in the case of one soldier by briefly crossing the military demarcation line. A week later, on November 20, 2017, President Trump officially announced re-listing North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, which called the move as a "serious provocation".
On November 28, North Korea conducted its third intercontinental ballistic missile test, marking the end of a two-month span in which no missile tests were conducted. The missile was said to have flown to a record altitude of 2,800 miles and landed in the Sea of Japan, a distance of over 600 miles. The missile broke apart into at least three pieces before it crashed. In a press conference shortly after the launch, President Trump simply said that "we'll handle it".
The crisis had caused concern about the safety of the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea. Kim Jong-un hinted at the possibility of sending athletes to the Games in his New Year's speech for 2018. The announcement was followed by South Korean agreement to participate in the first high-level talks with the North since December 2015. The talks were scheduled for January 9, 2018. In preparation for the North-South talks, the two countries restored the Seoul-Pyongyang hotline, which had been inactive for almost two years. The possibility of North Korean participation has stirred up talk about a possible Olympic boycott by the United States. After discussions on January 9, 2018, North Korea announced they would send athletes to compete along with a delegation to attend the Winter Olympics. North and South Korea marched together in the Olympics opening ceremony and fielded a united women's ice hockey team. North Korea sent a high-level delegation, headed by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un. The delegation passed along an invitation to South Korean President Moon to visit North Korea.
In his first State of the Union address, President Trump talked at length about North Korea, creating fears that an American strike was under serious consideration. In mid-February, as the Olympics were ongoing, the Trump administration denied accusations that it was considering a so-called preemptive "bloody nose" attack on North Korea's nuclear program. The denial came from Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton.
On April 27, 2018, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at the Joint Security Area, with Kim Jong-un crossing the border in South Korean territory, the first time a North Korean leader has done so. President Moon also briefly crossed into the North's territory. Both Moon and Kim signed the Panmunjom Declaration, declaring the Korean conflict over and to sign a proper peace treaty by the end of the year. With that, Moon agreed to visit Pyongyang in the fall.
On March 8, in a surprise departure his previous rhetoric, President Trump announced that he would meet with leader Kim Jong-un, and the two would meet likely by May. North Korea accepted South Korea's proposal to hold the high-level inter-Korean talks, which took place on March 29. On May 24, President Trump cancelled the planned meeting with Chairman Kim, but a week later, on June 1, President Trump reversed the cancellation and confirmed that the summit would take place on June 12 as planned.
Following their talks, both leaders signed a joint declaration titled "Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong-un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit". It stated:
The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Suspicion of continued nuclear program.
In June 2018, NBC News reported that U.S. intelligence believed that North Korea was increasing production of enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. In August 2018, US officials said that North Korea could be continuing to build nuclear weapons, and days later the United Nations Security Council received reports that North Korea may not have stopped its nuclear program. The reports also claimed that North Korea was violating the UN sanctions. But in late September 2018, President Trump claimed that North Korea had already stopped nuclear testing, and he said that the United States would not impose any required timeline for North Korea's total denuclearization, stating, "I've got all the time in the world. We are not playing the time game. If takes two years, three years, or five months, it doesn't matter." President Trump maintained that sanctions against North Korea would stay in place until it had denuclearized.
A second summit between the two leaders took place on February 27-28, 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam. On February 28, 2019, the White House announced that the summit was cut short and that no agreement was reached, with President Trump later stating that it was because North Korea wanted an end to all sanctions.
In April 2019 President Trump tweeted that a third summit between him and Kim "would be good" and on June 12, 2019, he received a letter from Kim which he described as "beautiful". On June 26, 2019, it was announced that talks were underway to hold a third U.S.-North Korean summit. On June 22, 2019, an undated photo was released by the North Korean government of Kim Jong-un reading a letter from President Trump. Kim described the letter as "excellent" and described Trump as the "supreme leader" of the United States.
On June 30, 2019, President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Kim Jong-un at the DMZ. The meeting was apparently the result of an impromptu Trump tweet suggesting a possible meeting with Kim at the DMZ. When they met, Trump and Kim shook hands, and Kim said in English, "It's good to see you again", "I never expected to meet you at this place." He added, "You are the first US President to cross the border". They briefly crossed the border into North Korea before crossing back into South Korea.
After meeting at the border, Trump, Kim and Moon Jae-in entered the Inter-Korean House of Freedom for approximately one hour. As a result of the brief meeting, both U.S. and North Korea agreed to set up teams to resume denuclearization talks.
During 2019, North Korea conducted a series of short-range missile tests, while the US and South Korea took part in joint military drills in August. On August a6, 2019, North Korea's government released a statement criticizing the South for participating in the drills and for buying US military hardware.
On September 10, 2019, President Trump tweeted that he had asked John Bolton for his resignation which was given shortly thereafter. North Korea had accused Bolton of being a "warmonger" and North Korea blamed Bolton for breaking off the February summit in Hanoi. Bolton responded by claiming that North Korea was becoming more dangerous.
On September 23, 2019, Presidents Trump and Moon met in New York, at the time of the 74th United Nations General Assembly session. Trump downplayed the seriousness of North Korea's short-range missiles, describing them as "nothing spectacular". Both Trump and Moon expressed support for continuing negotiations. As had been agreed at the DMZ summit, talks began in Stockholm on October 5, 2019 between US and North Korean negotiating teams. After one day, the North Koreans said that talks had broken down, blaming US inflexibility. The US team, however, said discussions were good, and would be resumed.
In May 2020, Kim discussed boosting North Korea's nuclear deterrent. On June 5, 2020, North Korean foreign minister Ri Son-gwon said that prospects for peace between North and South Korea, and the U.S., had "faded away into a dark nightmare." On June 16, the North threatened to return troops that had been withdrawn from the border to posts where they had been previously stationed. Later that day, the liaison office in Kaesong was blown up by the North Korean government. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean delegation had left the building in January.
In September, Moon and Kim exchanged friendly letters about COVID-19 and the typhoons that had hit Korea. On September 22, Moon addressed the UN General Assembly and called for a "permanent peace regime" in Korea. Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the UN, backed his call and said that there had been significant progress in negotiations so far. On the same day, the crew of a North Korean patrol boat killed a South Korean fisheries officer whom they encountered off their coast. Kim apologized to South Korea for the incident. In November, the South Korean defense ministry reaffirmed its commitment to the peace process.
On March 24, 2022, North Korea broke a self-imposed moratorium and launched its first ICBM since 2017.