Posted on 03/08/2018 10:56:41 PM PST by NRx
For the moment, at least, it appears to be a clear-cut victory the biggest foreign policy win of his young administration. President Trump has brought his arch-nemesis, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a.k.a. Little Rocket Man, to the table to negotiate away his nuclear arsenal.
Optimists declared a major breakthrough. Even pessimists acknowledged that Trumps hard line against Pyongyang, after decades of less forceful U.S. effort, played a significant role in moving one of the worlds most vexing and threatening problems in a potentially positive direction.
But in the afterglow of the surprise announcement hinted by Trump in a teasing visit to the White House press room and soon confirmed by South Koreas national security adviser, standing in the West Wing driveway questions were fast and furious.
Were direct talks between Kim and Trump, two notably volatile leaders who have traded public insults for more than a year, the best way to start what are sure to be complicated negotiations? Was the administration, whose thin bench of experienced experts seems to be growing slimmer by the day, ready to face those wily and untrustworthy North Koreans? The talks, U.S. and South Korean officials said, would take place before the end of May.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
LOL. That’s a real Washington Compost headline. The bitterness just drips from it. When Trump gets Kim to give up his nukes, the Compost headline will be “North Korean Nuclear Workers Fear Starvation and Homelessness due to Trump’s bellicosity.”
Thank God for FR and other conservative sites on the internet.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Kim’s rhetoric turned out to be total BS, but Trump won’t put himself in a position where Kim could yank the rug out.
“And if the expectation is that Trump will travel to Kim for the visit then that automatically puts Kim in role of host, and Trump in the role of coming hat in hand.”
Is Trump saying he would go to NK to meet Kim on his turf? If so, I agree that would be a mistake - I just hadn’t heard that.
However, it would be fine if Trump invites Kim to DC, or happens to be in Asia for some other reason, and agrees to meet Kim on nuetral spot - as long as Trump has nothing invested and is always in a position to pull the plug if Kim does a 180.
The trick is having nothing invested - not building it up - and I think Trump is a master at this kind of thing. Prior to any meeting we would hear Trump publicly lowering expectations by saying things like “I’d love it if NK would give up its missile program but I don’t expect anything. We’ll see what happens”.
Trump won’t let this clown make a fool of him.
That is an EXCELLNT article!!! Thanks for posting!!! Maybe post it as its own thread?
Anyone who thinks the face-to-face is the START of the negotiation rather than the finished deal thats been in the works for months is blind.The Washington Post believes that the Trump Administration is still playing by the rules of the Obama Administration, under which the face-to-face WOULD HAVE BEEN the start of the negotiation.
On MTP today:
CHUCK TODD: How does any meeting between Trump and Kim not turn into a victory for the North Koreans?
Gee doodledog, you and Chuck Todd are like, intellectual blood brothers.
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