In the four months since the Hanoi summit ended in failure, very little
has happened between the US and North Korea, and there has been a lot of
pessimism about the future of the nuclear talks coming from both sides.
This weekend, things changed drastically, as President Trump suggested,
in the wake of the G-20 meeting, that he could maybe stop by the Korean
demilitarized zone to meet with Kim Jong Un. This seemed really unlikely
on the surface, as previous meetings took months to piece together. Yet it happened, and in an historic first, President Trump crossed the border into North Korea during the meeting at Panmunjom.
One successful meeting later, and the US and North Korea have agreed to resume nuclear talks, and there seems to be a strong sense Trump’s meeting has restored confidence within North Korea.
Having set foot into North Korea, Trump is now suggesting Kim will be
invited to visit the US next, and that no longer seems like such a
remote possibility either. With Trump making the first move, Kim clearly
could justify going to the US next time.
After months of pessimism, North Korea’s state media is now extremely
positive about the Trump-Kim interaction. They are suggesting that this
could be the breakthrough to a deal on the Korean denuclearization, and
importing bilateral relationships.
South Korean officials were a bit mixed on the meeting, with some
viewing the meeting as lacking substance. On the other hand, some South Korean officials saw this meeting as a real sign of hope after months of negativity, a potentially very positive move.
Another photo op…do the work.
I thought the same thing.
Trump’s affinity for ruthless dictators goes back to his love-fest with MBS. He speaks their language, gangsta. Don’t worry, Pompeo and Bolton will quickly intervene to do damage control.
We’ve always loved our SOBs, starting with Stalin, then Mao.
Keep Pompous Pompeo and Bonkers Bolton as far distant as possible. Remember, Bonkers sabotaged the previous summit in Hanoi just a few months ago.
The last thing we need or want is another conflict on the Korean Peninsula .. The 1950-53 war was destructive enough already; another one would be totally catastrophic. It’s a whole lot better if there’s truly peace.
Probably true, but I’ll take a hand-shaking-bro-hug photo-op over the the Tomahawk-chucking-“Presidential”-kind any day of the week.
A step for mankind?
Poor spanky publicists don’t realize Ike flew over the 38th parallel on his Korea visit, making trump #2.
Of course the Trump haters bash this move.
I think Trump may be purposely goading the Dems into taking a hawkish stance so he can play isolationist again.