The thirty years following the end of the conflict marked a relatively peaceful development for North Korea, under the leadership of Kim-Il-Sung, who became president in 1972; the industrialization process continued successfully and the most important political event was the attitude assumed in the ideological conflict between Moscow and Beijing, which initially saw Pyongyang alongside the Chinese and then on positions that can be defined as equidistant. Marshal Kim-Il-Sung remained president of the Republic and general secretary of the party even after a reshuffle at the top of the state implemented in 1986, while the post of vice-president was assumed by his son Kim Jong-Il, whose succession to the supreme leadership was thus formalized in an almost dynastic style. Despite some government changes, the internal situation remained substantially unchanged in the 1990s, with no echoes of the transformations of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe; on the contrary, in relation to this evolution, the international isolation of North Korea was accentuated, which even since 1988 had intensified contacts with the United States and in 1991 had requested and obtained, separately and at the same time as South Korea, admission to the UN, where until then it had aspired to manage a single seat.
This first important step in the direction of mutual recognition was followed by a resumption of dialogue between the two countries, which led to the signing, on December 12, 1991 in Seoul, of a pact of non-aggression and reconciliation, solemnly ratified by the prime ministers of the two Koreas in Pyongyang on February 19, 1992. In 1993, however, the Pyongyang regime started a tough battle with the international community, refusing inspections in its own nuclear plants. The conflict went on to the point that North Korea, openly accused of building nuclear weapons, left the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), causing a strong tension with the USA, fearful of a substantial change in the strategic balance in the Far East. Right in the midst of this crisis Kim-Il-Sung suddenly died and his son Kim Jong-Il took over the leadership of the country (July 1994): the office of president remained vacant and the deceased assumed the title of ” It was an abrupt change of line, which prepared the most dangerous threat launched two months later by the Pyongyang regime, which declared that it no longer felt obliged to respect the armistice. This threat materialized at the end of August 1998 with the launch in the Pacific Ocean of a powerful missile that flew over Japan: Tōkyō decided to suspend economic and financial aid to North Korea, also dragging the Seoul government and the remaining members of the KEDO (United States and European Union, joined the consortium in 1997), with dramatic consequences for the Korean people, already tried by the famine that afflicted the country for years, especially in relation to the blockage of food aid; to all this were added violent floods that caused victims and destruction. The dialogue with South Korea, restarted in 1999, in June 2000 reached the historic summit between the leaders of the two Koreas with difficulty. Subsequent aggressive military initiatives on the North Korean side once again undermined the fragile relations established between the two countries, however in July 2002, in the favorable context of the new prospects opened by the economic reform inspired by the Chinese model initiated in North Korea, Seoul accepted the offer from Pyongyang to open a negotiating table. After the reopening of the Yongbyon reactor, which closed in 1994, at the beginning of 2003, the Pyongyang government decided to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In October 2006, North Korea carried out its first underground nuclear test, an initiative that sparked international protest and culminated in a UN Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on the country. In October 2007, the leaders of the two Koreas met and signed a document that promised to overcome the previous divisions and to make the peninsula a zone of peace. Following the “six-party” talks in 2007 with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, the country decided to abandon the nuclear program in exchange for a supply of energy from neighboring countries. Tensions between the two cores resumed during missile tests undertaken by North Korea in the Yellow Sea (March 2008). In March 2009, elections were held for the renewal of the Supreme People’s Assembly; among the candidates only exponents of the Communist Party. In April of the same year, the regime decided to carry out a test launch of a long-range missile, prompting protests from Japan and the United States. In 2010 Kim Jong-Il visited China twice, achieving a strengthening of economic and military relations between the two countries. In November, several artillery rounds were fired at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, which provoked a strong reaction from the government of Seoul and the international community. In December of 2011 Kim Jong-un, after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il, he was appointed supreme head of the armed forces, thus being designated to lead the country. In 2013 Kim Jong-un introduced a series of economic reforms under the name of “socialist business management system”.
According to usprivateschoolsfinder, the resumption of nuclear tests led to an escalation of tension with South Korea, the US and Japan which reached its peak in 2013 with the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States which was followed by a reopening of dialogue. In 2018 Kim Jong-un announces a new détente policy that leads North Korean athletes to participate in the Pyeongchang (South Korea) Winter Olympics with a delegation led by the leader’s sister. The April 2018 meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-Jin was also revolutionary, both crossing the border between the two cores for the first time. In June of the same year, Kim Jong-un also met Donald Trump. A new meeting between Kim Jong-un and the US President in 2019 ended with a stalemate on the nuclear issue. As an instrument of pressure on the US and South Korea, a missile test had been carried out on the Sea of Japan. At the same time, diplomatic activity is also aimed at other important countries with strong interests in the region: China and Russia in particular. A new meeting between Kim Jong-un and the US President in 2019 ended with a stalemate on the nuclear issue. As an instrument of pressure on the US and South Korea, a missile test had been carried out on the Sea of Japan. At the same time, diplomatic activity is also aimed at other important countries with strong interests in the region: China and Russia in particular. A new meeting between Kim Jong-un and the US President in 2019 ended with a stalemate on the nuclear issue. As an instrument of pressure on the US and South Korea, a missile test had been carried out on the Sea of Japan. At the same time, diplomatic activity is also aimed at other important countries with strong interests in the region: China and Russia in particular.
