We’re not really talking about what Kim wants any longer, so this article is a numbskull’s opinion piece, that doesn’t address reality, at least in part.
These negotiations are predicated on Kim giving up his nuclear program. That hardly leaves a “Pakistan like” option. That’s utter nonsense.
As for whether this turns out bad for South Korea, it is their leaderships situation to bungle. Hopefully they won’t.
Trump is involved, and I don’t think he’s going to make a deal that sees a unified nation adopting the North Korean model. I have a hard time seeing the South accepting that either.
Look at what the North Korean model has turned the North into.
While some want to address South Korea’s leadership, and that they favor the North model, I think they’re woefully out of touch with reality.
South Korea isn’t going to join a plan that would turn it into a brutal dictatorship.
“These negotiations are predicated on Kim giving up his nuclear program.”
The media is getting most of what is said to be North Korea’s position of “denuclearization” through the mouth of the HARD left leader of South Korea, and not in the exact words of what that means to Kim.
“Predicated on Kim giving up his nuclear program”? When, how, on what terms, and by what date, and with what concessions and economic benefits have to occur first.
The two sides are either farther apart than the media makes it sound, or the deal is not going to be a good one, for our side, if North Korea leaves satisfied, knowing what the dictator wants: Respect it does not deserve without any change in the regime or its behavior, removal of the U.S. from South Korea as part of what it is calling “denuclearization” which is really just - keeping far too much than will be safe, long term, for South Korea, with no more than a “promise” it will never be “offensive”, for which it wants trade and investment with the west that is as open as it is with China.
If Bolton remains Bolton Kim will not agree to the international oversight we would rightly demand on Kim’s “denuclearization” including U.S. and South Korean observers in that as well. If Bolton is trumped by Trump, in favor of a legacy for Trump, we can pity the future on the peninsula as the South, under hard lefties like Moon, submit to heavy POLITICAL concessions with an unchanged Communist dictatorship.
“South Korea isn’t going to join a plan that would turn it into a brutal dictatorship.”
I think you need to get an education on the political background of Moon, and many in his administration, which includes memberships which they are unapologetic about, in political organizations said to be “favorable” to North Korea. Some known to be directly influenced by the North in their political agendas. Some are just naive and see in the Northern leaders a kind of “pride in the fatherland” (in a Korean history context) that they see missing in the leaders favored by the west in South Korea. Some are openly Communist.
There are Conservatives in South Korea that believe the “scandal” against the prior president of South Korea was a manipulated event and that Moon, and “grass roots” organizations (Leftist labor unions included) had millions of dollars in “foreign” support for his election. Of course like in the U.S. it never hurts to run as a Leftist as most of the media will happily link arms with you.
That is just a hit of Trump’s “partner” in South Korea right now.