Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Pyongyang and North Korea’s announcement about testing new missiles have raised alarm bells in Washington, rattled the United States' allies and threaten to destabilize the whole Indo-Pacific region.
While this is certainly not the first time that tensions have escalated, the current turmoil can be traced back to the actions of one man: former U.S. President Donald Trump.
During his presidency, Trump’s attempts at diplomacy were often viewed as ill-informed and dangerous, especially when he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un exchanged nuclear threats in 2017. Yet Trump and Kim, who met for two summits in 2018 and 2019, actually made significant progress toward resolving the decades-long conflict between their two countries — until Trump’s impulsiveness derailed these efforts and set the stage for escalation.
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