President Donald Trump confirms the recent review of Greenland's purchase, which has been flowing through media reports. While Greenland has made a clear refusal, President Trump's intention to buy Greenland still seems to be. According to the Washington Post, Trump has spoken for weeks on the idea of ​​buying Greenland, and staff are waiting for further instructions from Trump.

Greenland is a Danish municipality that has a significant level of autonomy, including jurisdiction and police. Located north of Canada, it is the largest island in the world with 2.17 million square kilometers. However, 84% of the territory is covered by glaciers and its population is only 56,000. Nevertheless, America's eyes on Greenland are due to abundant resources. Greenland's natural resource reserves are estimated at half of the Arctic Circle, and China is trying to secure oil mining rights. In addition, Greenland is a military key point against Russia. The United States built an air force base in 1953 and is operating a ballistic missile early warning radar.
This is not the first time in the United States that the State of Greenland has been purchased. The United States failed to purchase Greenland in 1867, when it was under Andrew Johnson. Also, after World War II, the Harry Truman administration offered $ 100 million to buy Greenland from Denmark. It's worth $ 1.3 billion today. As you know, Denmark rejected the proposal from the United States.

Historically, buying territory in the United States is not uncommon. Napoleon offered to sell the French North American colony of Louisiana to the US ambassador who went to demand trade rights in the city of New Orleans in 1803 during the Napoleonic Wars. The US government will buy 2.14 million Louisiana from France for $ 15 million. This price is worth $ 219 million today. It was only $ 7 per piece. The deal doubled US territory at the time, and now accounts for about a quarter of US territory. After that, the American Wild West was opened.

In 1867, the United States signed a treaty to buy Russia and Alaska. Russia was in financial trouble at the time. Alaska's purchase price was $ 7.2 million, seven times the size of the Korean peninsula at 1.53 million km. At that time, Alaska's purchase price was $ 125 million. Though it was only $ 5 per ㎢, public opinion was accused of buying it at a high price in the United States. But 30 years later, a gold mine was discovered, and over a year, the price of canned gold exceeded $ 7.2 million.

U.S. Virgin Islands is an autonomous US territory belonging to the Virgin Islands of the West Indies. From 1754 to 1917, it was the Danish West Indies, a colony of Denmark. The purchase price at that time was $ 25 million, at $ 500 million today.

As such, the United States has historically expanded its territory and gained national power through trade. In addition, Trump, a former real estate tycoon, says he is interested in Greenland at a strategic level. Experts see the US attempt to buy Greenland as a "second Alaska" strategy to strengthen its position in the Arctic Ocean.

(Photo = Getty Images Korea)