[Desk Column] A photo Trump brought back on the eve of the ceasefire

Jun 16, 2026, 10:12 am

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Nam Mi-kyung, Foreign Desk Editor

The moment U.S. President Richard Nixon faced Mao Zedong in Beijing in February 1972 was a massive watershed in Cold War history. Half a century has passed, and while the voluminous negotiation documents have faded, the lingering image of the handshake between the two leaders remains powerful. Diplomacy is often remembered by a single photograph. This is why eyes are turning to the background of U.S. President Donald Trump posting a photo of himself walking alongside North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un on his social media platform on June 13 (local time) without any explanation. The photograph captured a scene in the garden of the Capella Hotel during the 2018 Singapore U.S.-North Korea summit.

In hindsight, the Singapore summit is not evaluated as a successful piece of diplomacy. While the two leaders agreed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of a new U.S.-North Korea relationship at the time, the Hanoi summit the following year broke down. Since then, North Korea has further advanced its nuclear and missile capabilities, and the original goal of denuclearization was effectively left unachieved. Nevertheless, it is telling that Trump brought back this photo eight years later. This could mean he does not remember Singapore as a simple failure. To him, Singapore seems to remain a historic moment when a U.S. president sat down with a North Korean leader for the first time, moving beyond the success or failure of denuclearization talks.

Nixon and Trump both engaged in diplomacy where symbolism was maximized, yet their trajectories are starkly different. Nixon's visit to China was the fruit of a secret visit by then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and years of behind-the-scenes negotiations. The handshake that stunned the world was the result of lengthy negotiations. On the other hand, Trump is closer to a politician who believes that a meeting between leaders itself can be the starting point of negotiations. He sought to find breakthroughs through top-level summits rather than working-level talks, and the Singapore summit was the most symbolic case demonstrating such a diplomatic philosophy.

The Singapore summit is difficult to judge solely through the dichotomy of success and failure. Even if the destination of denuclearization was not reached, it was an event that shook the framework of a hostile relationship that had spanned decades. The very scene of a U.S. president and the supreme leader of North Korea publicly meeting, shaking hands, and issuing a joint statement marked a page in diplomatic history. Just because subsequent negotiations did not bear fruit does not mean the symbolic meaning left by Singapore disappears.

This approach is also a characteristic of Trump's diplomacy. He has prioritized decisions between top leaders over international organizations or bureaucratic structures. In the recent process where the U.S. and Iran reached a conclusion on an end to their war and a denuclearization deal 106 days after hostilities broke out, the method of prioritizing top-level decisions and political symbolism over detailed clauses was repeated.

Of course, a single photo of Kim Jong-un cannot be used to predict the resumption of U.S.-North Korea dialogue. North Korea possesses a far stronger nuclear arsenal than in the past, and its ties with Russia have grown closer. The environment for U.S.-North Korea dialogue is vastly different from 2018. However, the point to note is the timing. Just before posting this photo, Trump announced the upcoming signing of the end-of-war and denuclearization agreement with Iran. At a juncture where the clouds of war in the Middle East are clearing and a massive conundrum is being settled, the eyes of the international community naturally have no choice but to turn toward another unresolved, highly complex nuclear equation.

North Korea remains the final nuclear puzzle that Washington must solve. Whether the single photo thrown by Trump is nostalgia for the past or a flare signaling the prelude to a new diplomatic stage remains unknown. Yet, with the Iranian front now cleared, the fact that the world's attention is converging back on the Korean Peninsula appears self-evident.

#North Korea #US #Nuclear #Iran