North Korea's Road To The Nuclear Club

Open hostilities between the United States and North Korea date back to 1950, when war erupted on the Korean peninsula against the backdrop of a growing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which along with China came to North Korea's aid.

U.S. marines during a street-battle in Seoul in 1950. The conflict began after communist North Korea invaded the south, and U.S. forces led a UN-backed effort to support South Korea.

When the Korean War ended in a stalemate and with Soviet-backed Kim Il Sung (center) in charge, the “Hermit Kingdom” pursued a policy of “all-fortressization,” prioritizing military development over popular well-being.

The North Korean regime justified the race toward military might by portraying (through propaganda like this painting) a brutish America as a lurking threat.

After the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994, his son Kim Jong Il (pictured, right) took over a regime that was a menace mostly to its own people. But the situation was about to become more dangerous.

U.S. President Bill Clinton reacts to a question after discussing reports that North Korea had developed a secret underground nuclear complex.

Throughout the '90s, even as famine racked the country, North Korea’s secret, and vastly expensive, nuclear-weapons program was developing apace.

Then, in 2006, North Korea gave China 20 minutes' warning before detonating its first underground nuclear weapon.

Despite negotiating several acts of apparent “good faith,” like this demolition of a cooling tower at a plutonium-producing reactor in 2008, the international community seemed unable to stop North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles needed to carry them.

Kim Jong Il died in 2011...

...but son and successor Kim Jong Un reportedly kept the communist country firmly on course for its goal of a long-range, nuclear-capable missile.

In 2017, a flurry of successful missile tests sparked the ire of new U.S. President Donald Trump.

In August, Trump vowed "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if Kim continued to threaten the United States.

Kim inspecting what North Korean media claimed was a hydrogen bomb small enough to be slotted into an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The North Korean leader doubled down, responding to Trump's challenge by threatening U.S. territory (Guam) with “an enveloping fire.”

Then, in moves that took the world by surprise, Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in...

...released three U.S. prisoners...

...extended an invitation (though an envoy) to meet with Trump...

...and hopped on a plane to Singapore.

The U.S. president's motorcade rolling through central Singapore on June 11. Trump indicated the meeting might only be the start of a process to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

But most people hope the meeting will bring at least improved relations and de-escalation, or maybe -- as this Singapore bar-owner has called his new cocktail -- a bromance.