Thread: North Korea's Kim Just Met 'Art Of The Deal'

North Korea's Kim Just Met 'Art Of The Deal'

5:20 PM ET



Singapore Summit: So President Trump cancelled his meeting with Kim Jong-un, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. A diplomatic disaster? No. Diplomacy, Trump-style. We'll now see what Kim's made of.

In pulling out of the meeting, Trump sent a formal letter that deployed surprisingly deft diplomatic reasoning.

"Based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting," Trump said in his letter. "Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but the detriment of the world, will not take place."

The letter came a day after North Korea's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui sharply criticized Vice President Mike Pence, calling him "ignorant" and "stupid" after Pence commented that North Korea risked ending up like Libya if it didn't make a nuclear deal with the U.S.

So it's off. A disaster? Hardly.

Now we will see whether Kim Jong-un, just as his grandfather Kim Il-sung and his father Kim Jong-il did, is playing the U.S. to win pre-summit concessions — or really is serious about seeking a nuclear rapprochement.

Trump was right to be wary.

In recent days, Kim shifted from a months-long charm-offensive to just plain offensive, abruptly cancelling a meeting with South Korea, complaining about routine U.S. military exercises in the region and seeking to remove North Korea's nuclear program from the summit agenda — despite that being the main reason for the summit in the first place.

Given the abrupt shift and increasing demands, Trump really had no choice.

As for Kim's claim to have destroyed a remote nuclear research site Wednesday in North Korea as a goodwill gesture to the U.S. and South Korea, he allowed only journalists and a handful of other foreigners in as observers — but no one with nuclear technical expertise to determine what really was being demolished, and whether it was of any consequence to Pyongyang's nuclear program at all.

How Kim Family Cheats

Trump's letter was, as we noted, carefully worded, and thanked Kim for releasing three Americans, which Trump called a "beautiful gesture." He left open the possibility of still meeting, but put the ball in Kim's court.

Smart move.

As American Enterprise Institute Fellow and North Korea expert Nicholas Eberstadt wrote on Wednesday, "these are standard North Korean shakedown techniques, honed to perfection by three generations of regime negotiators. Mr. Kim is probing for pre-emptive concessions before his big get-together with Mr. Trump. Such techniques have proved successful in the past, which is why today North Korea is for all intents and purposes a nuclear state."

That's why Trump called his bluff. Going back to the early 1990s, when President Clinton signed a "nuclear deal" with North Korea that the Hermit State later reneged on, the U.S. has been taken to the cleaners repeatedly by North Korea's totalitarian ruling Kim family.

They sign deals, get trade, aid and other assistance upfront, then cheat on the deals as soon as it's no longer in their immediate material interest.

And, no, this is not a partisan issue: They've done it with Democratic presidents and Republican ones alike.

Iran Connection

This, by the way, helps explain why Trump was so eager to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal two weeks ago. That deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, was so weak and riddled with giveaways to the Iranian regime, that Trump, John Bolton and others in the administration no doubt felt it had to go.

"Why would Mr. Kim accept a worse deal for North Korea than what Iran had obtained?" Tod Lindberg, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute wrote. "Leaving one bad deal still active would have established the precedent for another bad deal."

As a long-time executive in the rough-and-tumble world of mega-project real estate development, Trump knows that sometimes the best move of all is to walk away from a bad deal. Make your opponent counter your offer. If not, it's not for you.

In the case of Kim, Trump's instincts were right. Maybe Kim will seek a summit. Maybe he won't. But Trump almost certainly will continue to make clear that a nuclear North Korea is not acceptable under any circumstance. And that failure to make a deal will have consequences.

Your move, Mr. Kim.

https://www.investors.com/politics/e...t-of-the-deal/

"Man Up" Kim...we all want safety, peace and prosperity!

Thank you for releasing hostages...now let's take the next big step to peace.

It will never happen. We will have to take them out. That's the reality. Such a shame. The military controls Kim. I've thought that for awhile.

They both are two loud mouths and that's all.