Something needed to be done to restart the talks with N Korea. Trump was already there anyway and it wasn’t that difficult to arrange a impromptu meeting with Kim.
Apparently stepping a few feet into N Korea broke the stalemate and talks are supposed to resume.
Hard to say if they’ll lead anywhere. All the US can do is try.
Like the previous administration and Cuba?
I’d prefer that the President not be so gleeful about Kim Jong Un, but I don’t think the meeting is the worst thing in the world, nor do I think a path centered on denying “legitimacy” to the regime is especially useful any more. This may not help, but I doubt it does anything meaningful to hurt, so I’m fine with the chance being taken. The administration’s whole policy on North Korea has been horrifically managed, and blame for that lies at the top, but something had to happen to get things grinding again after the debacle in Hanoi, and I trust Donald Trump to host a vapid televised spectacle more than I trust him to do pretty much anything else.
As others have said, just another photo op for Trump, another feather for his cap, while Kim takes him to the cleaners. Maybe a “historic” moment, but I’ll be shocked if anything substantial comes out of it.
Everything Trump does is purely to put on a performance, (that should be obvious to everyone by now). This is just another one of his dog-and-pony shows. He has no interest in actually changing anything in the actual circumstances. (Notice there was no talk at all about disarmament during this PR stunt.) Trump isn’t really capable of negotiating anything real out of this. Kim has been clearly wrapping Trump around his finger with cheap complements, and Trump eats it up. If anything good comes of this, it will be despite Trump.
All of this is motivated by Trump’s childish obsession with mindlessly reversing whatever Obama has done. (There is no other explanation for this blatant contradiction between how he handles Iran and how he handles North Korea.) Really, if Obama hadn’t made fun of Trump during the Correspondents’ dinner in 2011, none of this would be happening, (and Trump probably wouldn’t be president now).
Best intentionally-bad parody of a Harold and Kumar movie ever?
I should add that Trump is no doubt hoping that doing this will get him a Nobel Peace Prize–because if Obama got one then he has to get one, too. Really–this “historic moment” is just pure childishness.
Well, I suppose you could say that Cuba demonstrated some leadership by restoring ties with a country that legalized torture such a short time ago… I just didn’t think anyone would make that point in this thread.
Oh. snap!
Well, I think this meeting will result in Kim no longer being a brutal dictator, no longer pointing weapons at Seoul, no longer developing nuclear weapons, and opening his border to the world, readying his people for eventual reunification under a democratically elected Korean government.
But not right away of course, it will have to wait until after my wife-approved affair with Salma Hayek.
I like the DMV!
Imagine the effects of a destructive war in a lot of places around the world. With the U.S., England, France, Israel, Russia, China, North Korea, India, and Pakistan all having nukes, and Iran being next in line, nobody’s too far from a nuclear power.
Did anyone think we were on the threshold of such a war in Korea before Trump got elected?
And of course, before Dubya, we had the Agreed Framework that was keeping the Korean peninsula nuke-free. But that was Appeasement because we were giving them food aid and stuff IIRC, so Dubya’s crew said nuts to that, and NK had nukes before Dubya left office.
And then Obama’s team negotiated the JCPOA with Iran that kept Iran nuke-free. Only Trump & Co. pulled us out of that, and we almost went to war with Iran the other day.
Nothing wrong with a photo op, but that’s all it was. And for Kim Jong Un, being treated like an equal by the President of the United States - priceless!
This isn’t a good comparison as Obama visited Cuba after a historic deal had been agreed between the U.S. and Cuba. Trump has agreed no deal with Kim Jong-un/North Korea.
There is no achievement in and of itself about a U.S. President meeting and getting his photo taken with the North Korean Supreme Leader. The North Korean leadership has been wanting a face-to-face meeting with a U.S. president for many years. Any previous U.S. president could have picked up the phone to North Korea and asked for a meeting with the Supreme Leader and the North Koreans would have jumped at the chance.
Trump has given the North Koreans what they wanted for nothing in return.
I thought there was a deal with North Korea on Trump’s part. It went something like: You, Kim, let me have my picture taken with you, and I let you keep developing the weapons that you want.
I hope that Kim’s new negotiating team don’t know what happened to the old team.
Yeah, Mike, the possible purging of your counterpart is really funny. You should definitely make a joke about it when you meet the new guy.
I agree with your sentiment. But, while Trump gave them what they want for nothing in return, it also did not cost us anything in doing so. I am sure Trump’s triangulation here is to cozy-up with N Korea to put additional pressure on China with the whole trade war thing. He was probably thinking since he was in the neighborhood anyway, and loves a good show, and could make China, a trade adversary, nervous by appearing to forge a warm relationship with the satellite on China’s eastern border, and not actually have to “do” anything, why not?
This was also a dumb move politically. It’s one more thing for his supporters to twist their brains around to justify and one more thing for everyone else to excoriate him for. Nobody thinks he’s making things better in the world by cozying up to Kim.