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Road to Talks Between the U.S. and North Korea Has Been Bumpy

In August, North Koreans held a rally against the United States. Just months later the leaders of both countries have agreed to talk for the first time.Credit...Kim Won-Jin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Trump agreed on Thursday to meet Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. If talks go forward, they would be the highest-level meeting between the two countries. No sitting president has ever met — or even spoken on the phone — with a North Korean leader.

Here’s a look at previous attempts at dialogue and how the possible summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim came about.

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Former President Jimmy Carter met Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder, in 1994.Credit...Korean Central News Agency

While no sitting American president has met with a North Korean leader, two former presidents have.

Jimmy Carter met Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder, in 1994. Against the wishes of Bill Clinton, then the president, Mr. Carter traveled to North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, after American intelligence agencies said they believed the North was processing plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.

Mr. Carter’s meeting with Mr. Kim, who died three weeks later, set in motion the resumption of talks that led to what was called the Agreed Framework. Under that agreement, North Korea halted the construction of two reactors that could be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons in exchange for oil and the promise of two light-water nuclear reactors that could produce energy but not weapons fuel.

President Clinton would later agree to the deal, but Congress often delayed the oil shipments and refused to immediately lift sanctions, and the light-water reactors were never built.

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Kim Jong-il of North Korea, left, and President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, in June 2000.Credit...Pool photo by Yonhap, via Associated Press

Kim Il-sung’s son and successor, Kim Jong-il, and the then president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, met in Pyongyang in 2000, the first such summit meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas since a war divided the peninsula 50 years earlier.

The talks ushered in an unprecedented rapprochement and various joint projects including a factory park in the North Korean town of Kaesong. But the credibility of Kim Dae-jung’s so-called Sunshine Policy was damaged after an investigation revealed that the South Korean government had funneled $450 million to the North shortly before the talks.

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Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2000.Credit...Pool photo by Andrew Wong

Kim Jong-il invited President Clinton to North Korea in 2000. Madeleine K. Albright, the secretary of state, went instead. She traveled to Pyongyang in an effort to expand the Agreed Framework to include ballistic missiles, which North Korea was developing and selling abroad.

Clinton administration officials said a deal was close, but nothing was concluded by the time President George W. Bush took office in 2001.

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The United Nations Security Council meeting in New York in October 2006 after North Korea’s first nuclear test.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Agreed Framework collapsed in 2002 after the United States confronted North Korea over its secret program to enrich uranium using equipment from Pakistan. The United States stopped oil shipments to North Korea and Pyongyang restarted its nuclear weapons program.

The so-called Six-Party Talks continued fitfully between representatives of North and South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. The North said in 2005 that it would give up nuclear weapons and its existing nuclear programs in return for security guarantees. North Korea carried out its first nuclear test in 2006.

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Former President Bill Clinton met Kim Jong-il in 2009 in order to negotiate the release of two American journalists.Credit...Korean Central News Agency

In 2007, Kim Jong-il and South Korea’s president at the time, Roh Moo-hyun, held the second summit meeting between the two sides. The meeting produced an agreement aimed at expanding inter-Korean ties and easing military tensions along the disputed maritime border on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. But the deal came at the end of Mr. Roh’s five-year administration and his conservative successor quickly scrapped it.

The Six-Party Talks eventually collapsed in 2009, largely over the question of allowing international inspectors into North Korean sites.

That same year, Mr. Clinton traveled to North Korea and met with Kim Jong-il to secure the release of two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

Kim Jong-il died in 2011 and his youngest son, Kim Jong-un took over control of North Korea.

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North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, monitoring a weapons test in February 2012.Credit...Korean Central News agency

The Obama administration pursued a strategy of escalating sanctions it described as strategic patience, although meetings between diplomats from the two sides continued.

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How Nuclear Deals with North Korea Have Fallen Apart

Here are three key moments when negotiations between the United States and North Korea have appeared successful — but didn’t stick.

“I told President — President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is committed to denuclearization. ... and he expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible. It may feel like we’ve been here before. Well, that’s because we have. North Korea has agreed to freeze its nuclear and missile programs many times already. But these negotiations with the United States eventually all fall apart. “There will be no rewards for provocations. Those days are over.” Here’s a look back at three key moments. “Monday, North Korea announced it would freeze its nuclear program and allow the resumption of international inspection of its facilities.” It was called the agreed framework. “This is a good deal for the United States. North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected.” North Korea had been threatening to turn its nuclear fuel into bombs, and bar nuclear inspectors from the country. But after negotiations launched by then-President Bill Clinton, and spearheaded by former President Jimmy Carter, an agreement was reached. “I personally believe that the crisis is over.” Among other pledges, the U.S. said it would give the North annual oil deliveries and nuclear power technology. But fast forward to 2002. That’s when North Korea told U.S. officials that it had been running a secret nuclear weapons development program, and that it was nullifying the agreed framework. George W. Bush had harsh words for North Korea early on in his presidency. “... axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” But by 2005, a new round of negotiations brought hope for peace. The North tentatively agreed to end its nuclear weapons program and welcome back inspectors. Washington pledged economic benefits and security guarantees for the North. But just over a year later, North Korea announced its first nuclear test, inviting a new round of economic sanctions. In 2012, a new North Korean leader in charge meant a new round of talks. The so-called Leap Day Agreement called for the U.S. and other nations to send food aid to the North. And in return, Pyongyang said it would suspend missile tests and uranium enrichment. But 16 days later, North Korea launched this rocket. It exploded soon after liftoff. There have been several missile launches and nuclear tests since then. Which brings us to this current possibility of peace, a possibility that remains clouded by precedent.

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Here are three key moments when negotiations between the United States and North Korea have appeared successful — but didn’t stick.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

An agreement appeared to be reached on Feb. 29, 2012, under which the North would allow the return of weapons inspectors, and halt its long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs in return for American food aid.

However, the deal died soon after when North Korea launched a rocket to put a satellite in orbit, which the United States considered part of its efforts to develop long-range ballistic missiles.

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Otto F. Warmbier, an American student, at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang in 2016. He died in June.Credit...Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would be willing to hold direct negotiations with Mr. Kim as part of efforts to halt North Korea’s nuclear program.

He later pushed back against criticism over his willingness to speak with the North Korean leader.

“Who the hell cares? I’ll speak to anybody. Who knows?” Mr. Trump said. “There’s a 10 percent or a 20 percent chance that I can talk him out of those damn nukes because who the hell wants him to have nukes? And there’s a chance — I’m only gonna make a good deal for us.”

After the death of Otto F. Warmbier, a University of Virginia honors student who spent 17 months in North Korean captivity, Mr. Trump condemned the “brutal regime” in North Korea.

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A photo distributed by North Korea’s state news agency in March 2017 purported to show a Scud missile launch.Credit...Korean Central News Agency

During the first year of Mr. Trump’s presidency, North Korea tested ballistic missiles with increasingly longer ranges that put the United States within reach. The North also carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation, which the regime claimed was a hydrogen device.

Mr. Trump threatened to assail North Korea with “fire and fury” if the country endangered the United States. Undeterred, North Korea announced it was considering a strike against Guam, where the United States maintains a critical air base, that would create “an enveloping fire” around the Pacific island.

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President Trump addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

In his inaugural speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Trump vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies. “If the righteous many don’t confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” he said.

“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself,” he said of Mr. Kim in September, having debuted the nickname on Twitter earlier that month. Mr. Kim later called Mr. Trump “a dotard.”

Mr. Trump’s United Nations speech came just days after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

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Kim Yo-jong, center, the sister of Mr. Kim, standing behind Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony last month.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Two days into 2018, Mr. Trump said American and international sanctions on North Korea prompted talks between North and South Korea — a prospect raised during a speech made by Mr. Kim on New Year’s Day.

Mr. Kim boasted of having a button on his desk from which he could order a strike against the mainland United States. Mr. Trump responded on Twitter that he possessed a “much bigger & more powerful” nuclear button.

Later that month, during his inaugural State of the Union speech, Mr. Trump vowed he would not repeat “the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.”

North Korea agreed to send a delegation to South Korea for the Winter Olympics last month. The move helped ease tensions between the two sides. Kim Yo-jong, Mr. Kim’s sister, went to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the opening ceremony.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior White House adviser, traveled to South Korea to attend the closing ceremony. Her appearance came after a failed attempt by South Korean officials to coordinate a meeting between Kim Yo-jong and Vice President Mike Pence at the outset of the Games.

Two top South Korean officials, Chung Eui-yong, national security adviser, and Suh Hoon, the director of National Intelligence Service, traveled to North Korea this week to meet with Mr. Kim and set the groundwork for the overture to Mr. Trump.

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea.

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