The US handed North Korea a major, legitimate victory.

The US handed North Korea a major, legitimate victory. Photo: AP

While many experts believe that the summit between the two leaders of the US and North Korea took place too soon without adequate diplomatic preparation, others argue that President Trump's decision to publicly cancel the summit not only gave Pyongyang a sense of legitimacy but also allowed the Northeast Asian nation to maintain its nuclear program, essentially guaranteeing the security of the North Korean regime.

On Twitter, Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), commented: "This is a bad day for America. North Korea maintained its nuclear arsenal, broke maximum pressure by excluding China, weakened the US-South Korea alliance, and tricked Trump, who, by announcing the cancellation of the summit, made America the culprit."

Meanwhile, David Santoro, Director and Senior Fellow for Nuclear Policy at the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), shared: “If Kim Jong-un is wise, he will remain silent. He has won by maintaining his nuclear weapons and is in a better position to focus on economic development, because regional actors (like China or Russia) are unlikely to take a tough stance against Pyongyang.”

However, as long as Kim's safety seems to depend on nuclear weapons, North Korea will always hope to meet with the American leader, and Pyongyang does not seem to have given up on this hope.

Just hours after the U.S. announced the cancellation of the summit with North Korea, a senior North Korean official expressed the country's desire to remain committed to the meeting.

Political expert Robert Kelly at Pusan ​​National University argues: "If you are a North Korean, you want to meet leaders of the free world because it symbolizes that you are a real nation, not a feudal, backward society."