In Trump’s gamble with Kim Jong Un, let’s see who really has the art of the deal: Our view
After months of childish name-calling and nuclear taunts, the prospect of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un comes as a relief to an anxious world.
Trump’s leadership on tough economic restrictions and threats of military action undoubtedly sent a message to Kim, who complained in a New Year’s speech of “difficult living conditions” for his people under ” life-threatening sanctions .”
Now, however, comes the hard part. Can the self-styled master negotiator in the White House accomplish what none of his predecessors achieved: persuading North Korea to give up the nuclear arms program that the regime sees as the key to its survival?
The pathway forward is fraught, and the White House has already stumbled. Nine times during a news briefing Friday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders asserted that there were preconditions to a summit, that Kim must take ” concrete ” actions to back up his conciliatory offer for talks.
On Sunday, Sanders’ deputy, Raj Shah, told ABC’s This Week, “There are no conditions being stipulated .”
Trump’s advance team is a skeleton crew without an ambassador to South Korea, an assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, or an undersecretary of State for arms control and international security. The chief U. S. envoy for North Korea just retired abruptly, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared out of the loop when Trump seized on the summit.
