Posted on 05/25/2018 9:06:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s not exactly Donald Trump’s Reykjavik, but he has done the right thing by calling off the misconceived summit with Kim Jong-un.
The North Koreans have been yanking our chain over the last week or so, presumably trying to establish their leverage and begin a negotiation over the negotiation. They seemed to make some progress, with Trump saying the other day that maybe we could settle for something short of complete, verifiable denuclearization, which is supposed to be our core demand. The president may have tempted the North Koreans into the gamesmanship by occasionally seeming over-eager to take credit for a stupendous diplomatic success (stripping North Korea of its nukes) that hadn’t happened yet and is unlikely to happen.
On the other hand, unpredictability is a typical North Korean negotiating tactic, so the sudden shift from warmth and sunshine to blustery demands and threats shouldn’t have been unexpected.
It was always far-fetched that the North would be willing to give up its nuclear weapons. For Pyongyang, the value of a summit wouldn’t be the opportunity for a good-faith negotiation at the highest levels but the chance to use a superficially successful meeting to unravel the sanctions against it, the way it has in the past.
President Trump says there’s still the chance of a summit at some point. It’d be better to give up hopes for a splashy meeting and instead double down on the maximum pressure campaign. There’s still room to tighten up further by, for instance, cracking down on the regime’s illicit sources of cash and imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese entities dealing with the North. The longer-term goal would be to crack the regime, or at least its will.
It’s nice to believe that the North can be defanged easily and quickly at a headline-generating summit. But realism says otherwise. The United States shouldn’t, yet again, let the North Koreans play scorpion to our frog.
Considering National Review is now the Anti-Trump / Never-Trump standard - whatever they opine should be summarily dismissed as nonsense. NR is no longer worth any serious consideration.
RE: NR is no longer worth any serious consideration.
So, you believe the OPPOSITE of what they’re saying in this article then? You DO NOT WANT the summit to be cancelled? Which is to say, you do not think Trump cancelling the summit was a good idea?
Not scorpion to our frog.... North Korea’s scorpion to our Meerkat
Does anybody go on their cruises anymore? Expensive.
RE: Does anybody go on their cruises anymore? Expensive.
Ignore their cruise, just deal with the article please.
Kim tried to play Trump like previous Kims played previous Presidents. But you don’t play Trump. So I think the summit, in whatever form it ultimately takes, will proceed eventually with a much more subdued and chastened Kim. And it should, a peaceful, non-nuclear North Korea is in everybody’s interest.
After 30 cruises, I know the real bargains can be found at “Vacationstogo.com”. Those sponsored cruises are ridiculously expensive because you are paying for all the National Review folks on the cruise.
Let’s stick to this topic please.
If you want to harp on their expensive cruises, I suggest you open up another discussion thread.
What the poster us saying is it shouldn’t stay cancelled always and never be reviewed. NR sucks.
Flashback to the 2016 campaign and a FR post:
National Review: Trump Worse Than Hillary
Lowry the publisher destroyed a conservative publication and W. H. Buckely has rolled over in his grave many times over.
National Review sucks and should not be given any serious consideration.
Now are you going to whine about this post too?
Kim has been warned by his advisers and by the US and China that, due to cell phones and other forms of contact with the outside world, his people realize that their country is a malignant aberration of poverty and misery. With corruption out of control, Kim's regime is decomposing and will not survive long if he does not produce prosperity and a better life for his people.
Moreover, China's interest is now tilted against Kim in that a faltering and nuclear-armed North Korea on your border is like having a wild porcupine sleeping in your lap. Trump's withdrawal from the summit is a way of forcing China to tell Kim to shape up and to make a deal with Trump.
At a summit, Trump (and Pompeo) can speak with unique authority as to deal terms. In return for denuclearization, they can promise North Korea international help in improving the health and welfare of his people, with development deals that would unlock the immense wealth of its mineral deposits and produce wide-scale prosperity. If not, after another turn of the screws in the form of economic sanctions, Kim will have a bad end when his people turn on him or the Chinese depose him via a coup.
Too - funny - like saying Ali should stop punching when he has his opponent on the ropes...
Dear National Review:
We hired a president to determine foreign policy.
Thanks for your “consideration.”
5.56mm
W. H. Buckley long ago became an assclown Swamp rat, as evidenced by his canning of Peter Brimelow for daring to warn about the mortal danger of unrestricted immigration.
RE: We hired a president to determine foreign policy.
Might as well give the same advise to every foreign policy pundit out there....
Translation: ‘The North Korean summit should stay canceled because we don’t want any successes for Trump’.
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