Evidently, President Kim Jong-un of North Korea is feeling like a woman scorned. Never mind that he behaved throughout his affair with President Trump like a shrew – too uptight to screw.
North Korea accused the U.S. of breaking promises it made at a historic summit two years ago, saying the Trump administration had turned dreams for peace into “a dark nightmare” and dashed hopes for denuclearization.
Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said in a message to mark the second anniversary of the then-unprecedented June 12, 2018, meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump that the U.S. had broken its word, adding that North Korea saw no benefit in engaging with Washington.
(Bloomberg, June 12, 2020)
And this is breaking news…?
The title to my commentary on their “historic summit” alone spoke volumes: “Trump Strikes Potemkin Nuclear Deal with Kim Jong-un,” June 13, 2018. But the first two paragraphs presaged all that Bloomberg is reporting today:
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I feel obliged to reiterate my contention that Donald Trump holding a summit with Kim Jong-un is only as historic as the infamous one Neville Chamberlain held with Adolf Hitler. And, like Chamberlain’s ‘peace in our time,’ Trump’s ‘everybody can now feel much safer … sleep well tonight’ will live in infamy. Because, just as Hitler never ended his military aggression, Kim will never end his nuclear program.
Not to mention the manifest folly of hailing Trump for diffusing fears of nuclear conflagration on the Korean Peninsula. After all, he himself ignited those fears with his juvenile insults and reckless threats, which included calling Kim ‘Rocket Man’ and threatening to rain down ‘fire and fury’ on North Korea, respectively. The proverb of the infernal arsonist claiming credit for putting out his own fires comes to mind.
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I even followed up with commentaries warning of this inevitable nuclear fallout. For example, I refer you to
- “Trump Loves Kim. Kim Loves Nukes. And Never the Twain Shall Greet.” October 1, 2018
- “Trump Is So Self-Absorbed, He Thinks Kim Is Equally Susceptible to Idle Flattery,” February 28, 2019
What can I say, except I told you so …
But I feel constrained to remind Trump’s supporters of two interrelated points:
- He withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal Obama negotiated with the leaders of Iran. This, despite all other major nuclear powers signing onto that deal and the IAEA affirming Iran’s compliance (in spirit and to the letter).
- He promised that his genius in the Art of the Deal would not only lead to a great nuclear deal with North Korea but compel Iran to enter a new nuclear deal on his terms.
Yet, like every area of his foreign policy, Trump has nuclear diplomacy between the United States and these two countries now looking like a china shop where a bull in heat has been running amok.
Related commentaries:
Kim jong-un… nuclear fallout…
Iran nuclear deal… Trump and Kim in love…