Tremendous
Kim played Trump like a violin.
US President Donald Trump says his historic talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that ended in a joint agreement were “tremendous”.
The signed document includes a pledge from Mr Kim to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
But the Kims have been saying that for years, while doing the opposite.
If Trump had done any preparation he might have known that. If he had brought other people into the room with him they might have been able to tell him that. Granted it’s more likely that he would have forgotten the first and ignored the second, but as it is, he made it impossible for either to happen.
But in an extraordinary media conference later, Mr Trump announced details not in the paper.
He said he would halt US military exercises in South Korea, something widely seen as a concession.
Widely seen as because it is. What else would it be?
In a post-summit interview with ABC News, the president said he was confident that the agreement meant full denuclearisation.
“Yeah, he’s de-nuking, I mean he’s de-nuking the whole place. It’s going to start very quickly. I think he’s going to start now,” he said.
“I think he trusts me and I trust him,” Mr Trump added.
Oh, whew. That’s all right then. If Trump trusts Kim then there’s no more to be said – his radar is that good. He said so himself.
The other problem is that denuclearization means different things to the two sides. As explained in that link, Americans think “denuclearization” means the North gets rid of its nukes (verifiably and permanently). The North Koreans think it means removing all nuclear threats from the Korean peninsula, which means all U.S. forces (including conventional ground forces) out, because their presence acts to extend America’s “nuclear umbrella” of protection to the South.
I agree with the criticism from the left of this so-called deal while also simultaneously being amused to see liberals sputtering with indignation that military exercises might be cancelled. We live in a strange world.
But even worse are conservatives praising this nonsense. I’m not sure what conservative principles support any of this.
What’s it all mean? Ultimately, probably not a damn thing. NK will make commitments and not live up to them, just like the past several decades.
Trump will probably get a political boost from this, temporarily, but then it will fade as people realize nothing substantive happened. I’m just grateful he was too stupid to do this right before an election.
The UK news is weird. Leading up to the talks the news agencies did the usual thing of being generally pessimistic but trotting out some idiot to present the “other side” by saying that Trump is a “master salesman” and “deal maker”.
One second after the press conference, they were blindly enthusiastic and calling it “historic” and that it was a great move forward etc.
It’s perfectly obvious that they are not that stupid. Why they are saying these things is beyond me.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Trump got a Nobel Peace Prize out of this. It’s not as though they’ve always been very discriminating in the past.