WASHINGTON (AP)—President Donald Trump says he’s had “a long and very good talk” with the South Korean president, who’s just had a historic meeting with North Korea’s leader.
With anticipation growing for a possible U.S.-North Korean summit soon, Trump tweets Saturday that “things are going very well, time and location” of meeting with Kim Jong Un are being set.
Trump says that besides talking with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, he’s updated Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about “the ongoing negotiations.”
Moon and Kim have pledged to seek a formal end to the Korean War by year’s end and to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Trump has said he’s looking forward to the meeting with Kim and that it “should be quite something.” It is tentatively scheduled for May or early June.
Just off the top of my head …
I can’t think of a pool big enough —
But I guess if they refill one after every try … it might work …
The belly flop event is really going to be something ! —
Let me just say for the record that this rapprochement between SK and NK is a rejection of US policy and a complete failure by Trump. It’s an even bigger failure for those DC policymakers who have worked on this issue for decades and yet can’t find the words to sound the alarm about the implications of Trump’s ignorant brand of diplomacy.
For NK, they’ve played their hand well. They made it clear that they had a credible nuclear capability and would be prepared to use it. Kim didn’t back down in his verbal confrontations with Trump. He elevated his profile and kept his nukes. That’s a win for him. He has then reached out to his neighbors offering some form of rapprochement in exchange for vague ‘promises’ of peace and denuclearization. He could get sanctions lifted as a result of this PR and charm offensive.
For SK, they were pushed into a situation where they had to choose between two unstable leaders. SK has made a decision to abandon US policy and cut their own deal with NK where they will not insist on denuclearization. SK is offering NK economic aid, a diplomatic buffer from aggressive US action in exchange for a cessation of the conventional military threat. They are not insisting on removing nukes (despite the rhetoric from their foreign minister). For SK, this is a practical decision. Trump had made it clear that he had little regard for SK lives in the event of a conflict. As leaders of a sovereign nation-state, the Moon government was forced to act. They could not go along with a US policy that could make their own people sacrificial lambs in a war. So they took the matter into their own hands. What this means is that Kim keeps his weapons, his totalitarian state apparatus, gets economic aid and gets the US out of NE Asia, while China’s and Russia’s influence grows.
It’s a total and complete defeat for the United States. Trump doesn’t care as he is looking for the PR value while Kim scams us all.
Other rogue states will learn from Kim’s example and nuclear proliferation will become an acute problem.
If Trump manages to get his ass over there for a Summit, and that is by no means certain, my bet is that Kim and Moon will smile, flatter him, give him some swag to take home with him, and make it appear that they think he’s important and that he’s “done a deal”. Then, they’ll bid him annyeong and breathe a sigh of relief upon his departure, after basically coming to an agreement without any US input.
Trump will take credit for the whole affair, and puff himself up like a large orange blowfish. Melania will bat his hand away, Barron will pace up and down, periodically asking, “what does dad do whenever he locks himself in the bathroom?” And Trump will stare directly into the sun for several minutes.
The party started without him because maybe they both got tired of him trying to play them for his own self aggrandizement which is about all he’s got.
Amazing how he thinks he is still relevant in the koreas deal.
I heard him standing next to Merkel saying he was saving the world or something like that as he was stroking himself.
I busted out laughing.
He will accept nothing less than the "NOBEL Peace Prize when he thinks it’s the time for the world to thank him.
Even one of his gop minions started the thought.
Hopefully, kim and moon finish up business and they can just tell trump, stay home, deal done, we don’t need your help, never did.
That would really make my day. lol