President Trump’s North Korea gambit turns diplomacy on its head. Is it a shrewd move? Or is America being played?
Earlier this week, Vice President Mike Pence said, „our posture toward the regime will not change until we see credible, verifiable and concrete steps toward denuclearization.“ Trump himself previously ridiculed the idea of talks, tweeting, „The U. S. has been talking to North Korea… for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!“ He humiliated Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for his diplomatic efforts, tweeting that he was „wasting his time.“
So what changed this week? It’s not clear. The charitable interpretation would be that the South Korean government received assurances that the North was serious about talks to eliminate its arsenal. Let’s be clear that North Korea has announced no concessions, no reversal of its arsenal, no denuclearization.
What appears to have happened is the following: Trump was told that in the talks between North and South, Kim Jong Un expressed a wish to meet with him, and Trump jumped at the opportunity. Henry Kissinger has often said that presidential summits should be the climax of a long negotiating process, not the beginning.
