On the overriding American priority of eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, there’s still no sign of major breakthroughs anytime soon.
The world can welcome news that President Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un is back on – but only a little.
Nearly everyone prefers diplomacy to threats of nuclear war. Trump won’t travel to Singapore on June 12 to exchange hostile words with his North Korean counterpart.
But on the overriding American priority of eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, there’s still no sign of major breakthroughs anytime soon. And by reinstating the face-to-face session he earlier cancelled, Trump has already granted a concession prized by North Korean leaders for years.
The president’s words today usefully re-balanced expectations that had sailed out of control. Abandoning the idea he’ll persuade Kim to rapidly “denuclearize,” Trump described the summit as merely a “get-to-know-you” session to be followed by additional meetings.
Since experts doubt North Korea has any intention of surrendering all its nuclear weapons, that re-calibration reduces risks of a summit ending badly and escalating tensions anew.
Yet Trump, veering sharply in the opposite direction, gave no indication that North Korea is prepared to make any concrete concessions at all.
The president said the meeting would produce no formal, signed agreement. He didn’t raise North Korea’s notorious human rights violations in Friday’s lengthy Oval Office chat with Kim’s top deputy.
Because “we’re talking so nicely,” Trump told reporters he’s withholding additional planned sanctions on Pyongyang.
