June 12, 2018, was a historic day in modern diplomacy. Against the backdrop of Singapore’s lavish Capella Resort, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, strode purposefully down a crimson carpet that gleamed under the tropical sun. Approaching him from the other end was a figure draped in mystery and power: Kim Jong Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea, whose presence was magnified by the stark lines of his grey Mao suit and the cold glint of his black-rimmed glasses.

In that brief yet seismic moment, their hands met—a handshake that transcended and acknowledged decades of hostility between the two nations. Just a year before, North Korea’s missile tests had shaken the world, placing even Alaska within their firing range. Now, as Trump and Kim’s hands locked in a remarkable grip, the very air was charged with a palpable tension.

The Singapore Summit did not just mark the first face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, it was the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea. The central mission for the two leaders was paramount: Trump aimed to secure Kim’s commitment to completely, verifiably, and irreversibly denuclearize North Korea. For Kim, it was the prospect of having the crushing American sanctions on his country lifted.

A year later, the talk continued in Hanoi. Although no major breakthroughs, both leaders emerged from Singapore with modest victories: Trump can point to North Korea’s suspension of missile tests and the return of the remains of fallen American soldiers. For Kim, standing beside the American President was a victory in itself, that North Korea was no longer a global pariah but a nation that had been been taken seriously on the world stage.

But Hanoi, unlike Singapore, ended not with applause but with the shattering of expectations, Trump and Kim ended the summit early with no deals and no progress. The ending was a stark realization that decades of mistrust and animosity would not be undone in two summits. The demands from both countries were irreconcilable: Washington’s insistence on full nuclear disarmament before sanctions relief clashed with Kim’s demand for the reverse.

Years after the Hanoi summit, a subtle shift commenced in Washington, the United States would quietly pivot from a policy of denuclearization to one of deterrence. This shift signaled the United States had finally understood the profound truth: North Korea would never willingly surrender its nuclear weapons. Kim Jong Un declared that his country possessed a “powerful and reliable war deterrent, which no force and nothing can reverse.” Years later, standing on the 76th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, Kim doubled down on this declaration, vowing to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.

The question that had haunted policymakers for decades now stood center stage: why would Pyongyang refuse to relinquish its nuclear weapons?

At the heart of North Korea’s nuclear ambition lies something primal—survival. For decades, Pyongyang relied on the Soviet Union’s nuclear umbrella for protection. But the first crack in that alliance came in 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis shook North Korea’s faith in its superpower ally. Watching Khrushchev back down in the face of Kennedy’s pressure rattled the North Korean leadership to its very core. Kim Il Sung declared that Krushev would rather “buddy-buddy with Eisenhower and Kennedy” than support other socialist countries.” The Soviet Union’s betrayal forced North Korea to find a new source of defense.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the United States’ Rapproachment to China only deepened North Korea’s isolation. Its communist allies were gone, its economic future uncertain, now facing a famine that would cause catastrophic damage to the country and the regime, as well as the threat from the South—with its powerful American ally—loomed larger than ever. For North Korea, nuclear weapons weren’t just a strategic asset; they were a lifeline, the ultimate guarantee that the regime would survive.

Despite crippling UN sanctions that continued to suffocate the North Korean economy, Kim Jong Un stood unwavering. The nuclear program advanced relentlessly, seemingly immune to global condemnation. Kim’s unmistakable stance that his country would rather face economic devastation than forsake the one asset that ensured its survival in an unforgiving geopolitical landscape. Pyongyang often points to the downfall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who, after relinquishing his nuclear ambitions for sanction relief and better relations with the West was captured, humiliated, and killed by anti-government forces.

When North Korea detonated its first nuclear bomb in 2006, it achieved what it had been building toward for decades: a formidable deterrent against U.S. influence on the Korean Peninsula. This milestone erased the possibility of a conventional invasion by South Korea or the U.S., securing the regime’s future. Indubitably, every subsequent attempt by the U.S. to coax North Korea into abandoning its nuclear arsenal was destined to fail. For Kim’s regime, survival and nuclear weapons had become inextricably linked.

But for Kim, these weapons represented more than just defense—they were potent bargaining chips, tools to amplify North Korea’s influence on the world stage. The sheer attention Pyongyang garnered after obtaining nuclear capabilities was a clear testament to the power nuclear weapons wielded in global diplomacy. Washington had to divert its foreign policy focus from Europe and the Middle East to a country that is the size of Pennsylvania, which now threatens to rain down nuclear bombs. Successive international negotiations with other regional and global powers made North Korea feel like it was being treated with seriousness, and that it was finally equal to other Western powers. North Korea can now force other countries to sit at the negotiation table with just a few missile tests.

Meanwhile, domestically, nuclear weapons gave Kim Jong Un a sense of legitimacy. The Kim family’s rule has always been built around the narrative that they are defenders against foreign interventions, particularly from the United States and South Korea. Having accelerated and solidified North Korea’s nuclear status, Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of the ultimate deterrence aligns with his predecessors’ message that they are the protectors of the nation. Nuclear weapons in North Korea became a strong, visual, and symbolic representation of the Kim family’s – or the country’s – achievement, cultivating a sense of notion within the population that the country cannot be threatened. Thus, by possessing nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un not only secured his regime’s security but scored a political win.

After two historic summits, numerous negotiations, sanctions, and international condemnations, the subtle shift in American foreign policy toward North Korea reflects an acceptance of the failure to achieve denuclearization. Since October 2019, negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang on nuclear programs have been nonexistent. However, to the United States, denuclearization and deterrence are not mutually exclusive, as demonstrated by the Washington Declaration adopted by President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in April 2023. The Declaration affirmed that any attack on South Korea would be met with a “swift, overwhelming, and decisive response.” Officially, Washington maintains that the denuclearization of North Korea is an important goal of the U.S.-South Korean alliance.

Therefore, by quietly acknowledging the futility of complete denuclearization, the United States is compelled to seek more effective strategies to deter North Korean nuclear threats.