Every now and then our current President does something right. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. ;)
I must admit this impromptu meeting caught me off guard. I think it caught Kim off guard too. Talks are scheduled to resume in a couple weeks. Anytime we’re talking and not saber rattling is a very good thing. IMHO
Sometimes a bold and unexpected gesture can work. I’m encouraged that the stalemated talks are resuming. I vividly remember Nixon’s surprise announcement of the Ping Pong diplomacy. Exchanging table tennis players didn’t seem like a big deal, but it ultimately lead to a new relationship with China.
I’d appreciate it if we could keep this thread focused on N Korea and the possibility of a negotiated easement of tensions.
"U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun held secret discussions at the DMZ to set up the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean president Kim Jong Un, a U.S. senior official tells CNN.
The discussions were held the night before the two leaders met. "
…
Setting something like this up overnight is impressive. Diplomacy tends to move at a snail’s pace. Stephen Biegun earned his paycheck this week.
North and South Korea have massive amounts of artillery aimed at each other. It’s been like that since the negotiated cease fire.
Seoul would be obliterated within days. N Korea has very little infrastructure and has almost nothing to lose. The possibility of Nuclear weapons makes the loss of life even more appalling.
The relationship with the N Korean government will probably never be friendly. Hopefully we can find a way to ease tensions and avoid the annihilation of millions of innocent people.
I disagree and take the opposite view. Trump has given Kim Jong-un two summits and a “historic meeting”, yet has received nothing in return (except for “love letters”). Take a look at the list of North Korean missile tests on Wikipedia - their frequency has increased under Trump’s tenure. Trump has done nothing except diminish the United States’ international reputation and increase Kim Jong-un’s personal prestige.
The signature features of Trump’s foreign policy are cosying up with murderous autocratic dictators, such as Putin, Kim Jong-un and bin Salman, and alienating traditional democratic allies, such as N.A.T.O. and the E.U.
I don’t see how Trump’s actions in North Korea can be seen as anything other than shameful and embarrassing for the United States.
I’ve been reading about the economic importance of S Korea. Forbes published an article in 2015.
They play an important role in the Worldwide economy. The loss of these exports would be felt everywhere. The Forbes article is discussing a mild economic downturn. Imagine the effects of a destructive war on the Korean Peninsula.
I was building PC’s in the late 90’s and a earthquake damaged a chip factory in Japan. Memory chip prices went up substantially. The factory in S Korea was the only major supplier. I had trouble even finding memory that was compatible with motherboards I was upgrading for customers. The market didn’t get straightened out for over a year. I don’t know how the electronics industry could cope with the damage to manufacturing if war ever breaks out in that region.
I agree this negotiation may not go anywhere. We still have to keep our forces in S Korea and keep the pressure on.
We’ve tried ignoring N Korea and that didn’t work. Let’s see where talking leads.
The regime will always be brutal and dangerous. The world can never forget that.
The situation was spiralling out of control a few years ago. The missiles shot out to sea were alarming to many countries. A miscalculation by N Korea could have triggered a war.
Normal leaders use things like summits to make agreements, so that things of actual substance emerge from them. Trump just sees them as photo opportunities.
This. Trump started out with ridiculous tough talk, flipped on a dime and went to obsequious fawning on a dangerous dictator, and he’s achieved exactly nothing.
If Trump does make a “deal”, relaxing sanctions in exchange for … whatever, I don’t see Kim adhering to the terms once goods start flowing into the country. They’ll resume nuclear development “in secret” giving Trump plausible deniability to keep promote his “historic deal”.
