North Korea is putting up a façade in front of the world, and Americans should not be buying into it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that North Korea will allow investigators to view their nuclear sites. North Korea is holding an open house party for world destruction, and at the forefront is Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea, has a laundry list of villainous acts to his name. Yet, the leader of the free world, Trump, can look past the acts of villainy and hatred. 

“North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor and torture,” according to Adam J. Szubin, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a 2016 U.S. State Department report.

Forced labor, torture and extrajudicial killings are a cocktail of hatred that must be exterminated. The nuclear disarmament is a sign of good faith from the isolationist nation, and, perhaps, times are changing for the North Koreans. 

“Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the two sides agreed on logistics,” according to an article from Reuters, titled, “Pompeo hails ‘significant’ North Korea progress; experts skeptical.”

North Korea allowing any sort of viewing of their nuclear facilities is a milestone, and they should be celebrated for securing this deal. However, the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site is no longer operational, and the Yongbyon site was not included in the nuclear facility investigation. The Yongbyon facility is responsible for producing fuel used in their nuclear weapons, and leaving the U.S. out of that facility makes the idea of denuclearization far-fetched.

“I think the government is being too hands-on, and they need to lift sanctions opening up free trade,” senior computer science major Aaron Jones, who is also President for Young Americans Liberty, said.

U.S. sanctions placed on North Korea have been in place since 2006, and during the Obama presidency, they were tightened following the careless missile tests. Financial and shipping restrictions are part of the sanctions placed on the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury webpage sanctions. 

Jones said he hopes talks between Pompeo and North Korea are successful, but he is hesitant to trust the North Koreans.

“Economic sanctions are important in terms of foreign policy,” junior political science major Ian Pearson, who is also the President of College Democrats, said. “Sanctions have to put the right message across.”

Currently, economic sanctions placed on North Korea are some of the strongest, but the sanctions have merit. Open trade is important for economies to grow; however, carelessly testing nuclear weapons is unacceptable. North Korea may claim their weapons are the best defense against foreign intervention, and if the U.S. continues to place sanctions on them, there could be another Pearl Harbor-like attack.

Denuclearization is a lengthy process, and the current administration deserves some credit for the deal. However, North Korea has a litany of evil acts in recent years, making it hard to trust them.Their leader has shown to be irrational and have a cruelty-driven past. The solution to this nuclear debacle is fixing ties with China, one of North Korea’s allies, and allowing some trade to North Korea. Their government structure is a broken system, and with some foreign intervention it could thrive. A united Korea with no nuclear weapons is a future Americans can yearn for.