Kim’s Invitation to Trump: Real Breakthrough or Déjà vu?
It didn’t take twelve hours for the mainstream media to turn a collective “about face” on President Trump’s decision to accept the invitation from Kim Jong Un, to meet in the next couple of months for the purpose of discussing de-nuclearization on the Korean peninsula.
When the announcement was made by South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong last Thursday, March 8th, just outside the entrance to the west wing at the White House, initial reaction to the announcement amounted to stunned approval from unlikely media sources who, unprepared for such a seeming breakthrough in the stalemate between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, were caught tongue-tied and flat-footed. After all, how could Trump- crude, brusque, undiplomatic and recklessly accelerating us towards nuclear war, ever leverage a discussion from “Little Rocket Man” about de-nuclearizing the entire Korean Peninsula? Hell, de-nuclearization wasn’t even dreamed about by his Democrat and Republican predecessors, who relied on trained “professionals” in the State Department to leverage concessions from Kim and his father- concessions that were as worthless as a liar’s promise.
In 1994, Bill Clinton offered boatloads of cash, and following delivery, Kim’s father, Kim Il Jong, immediately resumed nuclear research, despite the “deal” to the contrary that Clinton so foolishly touted. In 2001, George W. Bush agreed to remove all nuclear missiles in South Korea, once aimed at North Korea, in exchange for yet another promise to halt nuclear weapon research, and Kim Il Jong reneged, yet again. Five years later, North Korea successfully detonated its first atomic weapon, and the march towards the development of nuclear missiles began in earnest. At least Clinton and Bush tried- a far cry from Barack Obama, whose policy of “strategic patience” provided him a convenient and irresponsible excuse to do nothing, and kick the can down the road to Donald Trump. By the time all of this “kimchi” landed in Trump’s lap, Kim Jong Un was well on the way towards being able to nuke the continental United States with an ICBM.
From the get-go, Trump has made it clear that there was no way the United States would abide a North Korea capable of a missile strike against the U.S., or its allies, and summarily applied pressure on China to join in a U.N. resolution to apply the most stringent sanctions against North Korea. The president even took to openly tweeting insults, referring to Kim as “Little Rocket Man,” and issuing threats of “fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen” to the North Korean dictator, causing State Department “experts” to swoon at the thought of such provocative pokes coming from a U.S. president. They wailed and whined about the “reckless” president, who would push the world towards World War III.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
It was Kim Jong Un who came with an invitation, to sit down with his nemesis and discuss the possibility of de-nuclearization- something all of the “experts” never dared suggest. After initial jubilation at the thought of such a breakthrough, the legion of Trump-haters: NeverTrump Republicans, Democrats, the so-called “experts” like R. Nicholas Burns (George W. Bush’s Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs) and Peggy Noonan (Reagan’s speech-writer), and their friends in the media, all got their messaging together and then went on a plethora of interviews to bash Trump, yet again, and tell the world the president was flimflammed by a rogue dictator, who tricked the president into agreeing to meet. One might think that all of the “talking classes” are rooting against the president, just because he didn’t seek out their advice and consent, before taking matters into his own hands and boxing Kim into a corner.
Well, their own bruised egos aside, it seems that our president figured out that if one is going to deal with a tyrant, then one needs to speak in the language that the tyrant understands, and now who has approached Trump, hat in hand, and requested a bi-lateral meeting, without all of the time-consuming and trivial trappings of a brokered summit? Such a summit would take far-too-long to bring about, under the “rules and regulations” the experts swear by, and both Kim and Trump haven’t the time to wait for all of that to take place. Kim won’t wait because he knows, that Trump knows, he is merely months away from having an operational ICBM with a nuclear warhead- something Trump has promised will be preceded with military action, which is why Kim has requested a meeting by mid-May. The threat of American military action looms large for the little dictator, primarily because he believes Trump is just “mad” enough to follow through on his threats, and annihilate North Korea in the process. For his own part, Trump knows that the only way to prevent an inevitable military showdown is to give Kim this one last chance to back off his nuclear stance, and thus preserve his regime, or else bear witness to American military might.
The Trump-haters who seem to hope that the effort fails, just so they can say, “…see, I told you so,” don’t realize that their slandered “warmonger” president really wants to avoid war, and is willing to extend the olive branch this one time in order to prevent it. They insist that Kim is so smart (and that Trump is so dumb), that he will snooker the president the way his dad did Clinton and Bush, and gain sanction relief and other concessions on the front end of a commitment he doesn’t intend to keep.
Well, so far, it is Kim who has made all of the concessions, including a halt to missile testing and abiding U.S./South Korea military exercises, designed as rehearsals for a possible invasion of the North. Beyond agreeing to sit down with Kim, Trump has promised nothing, and both sides understand that financial pressure and international sanctions will remain in place while the two sides prepare for this historic meeting- the first between a U.S. president and a leader of North Korea. Kim wants to see a formal agreement to bring to an end to the Korean War, sixty-five years after a cease-fire was declared, leaving a “hot” war turned “cold” but, technically, not over. Trump might be willing to abide this, once Kim turns over all of his nuclear weaponry to the U.S. and once U.N. inspectors thoroughly verify that de-nuclearization has actually taken place.
Trump won’t be stupid like Obama was with the Iranian mullahs, when his predecessor forked over billions in cash for nothing in exchange. Trump won’t be taken in, the way Clinton and Bush were taken in, and he has already promised to make it a short meeting if he senses that Kim is trying to pull one over on him. What would then follow would show a watching world that the time has come for a military response to the Korean crisis- one that Trump wants to avoid, but is willing to exact, if that is what it will ultimately take to de-nuclearize North Korea.
Don’t expect that these efforts, if successful, on the part of Donald Trump to avoid war with the North Koreans, will land the president anything close to a Nobel Prize for Peace. No, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who awarded to Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for achieving nothing more than his own election, and to Al Gore for convincing the world that man-made global warming would melt the polar icecaps by 2013, would more likely give the prize to Kim Jong Un, instead. Perhaps they should rename the prize the “Nobel Prize for Political Correctness,” but that is a subject for another day.
So, whether a real breakthrough is achieved or whether this is just an unfortunate case of déjà vu, is really up to Kim. He either comes in earnest or he comes to deceive, at his own peril. Kim may be crazy, but he is not stupid. While only a fool would trust him to keep his word, his actions are the only way he will avoid his own demise and the destruction of his country, and Trump knows this all too well, because time has run out.
Perhaps, it is time for all of the “experts” to start rooting for an American president, rather than licking their chops at the prospect of his failure…but don’t hold your breath…they are still hoping that Trump colluded with the Russians.
-Drew Nickell, 12 March 2018
© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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