Trump Set To Meet Face-To-Face With Kim Jong-un, And Soon!
Nukes On The Table, Sanctions Remain For Now, Time And Place Not Yet Determined, Just That It’ll Be “By May”
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This story unfolded in a very strange way: South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-yong, who just met with Kim Jong-un in North Korea, came out of the doors of the White House to announce he had presented Trump with a personal request from Kim for talks, and Trump had accepted. Here’s a short video of the announcement:
Trump was not present for that, but shortly after confirmed the story, via Tweet.
Trump would be the first sitting President to meet with a North Korean leader. We won’t speculate too much about the location of the meeting: but with talk of “decapitation squads” and rapid assault teams, it’s highly unlikely Kim will leave North Korea. So will this become a “Nixon in China” type scenario (where Kim can deliver the type of spectacle Trump loves)? Or will the two simply meet at the Joint Security Area within the DMZ?
Most of the coverage is focusing on the shock and sheer audacity of the move, bringing together “two strong-willed idiosyncratic leaders who have traded threats of war,” (as the New York Times puts it). Others are debating whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
We will say, as Trump would say, “we called it!” In our April 18, 2017 edition, we wrote “Kim Jong-un’s best play might be to pick up the phone and give President Trump a buzz. Trump seems to respond favorably to strongmen who come calling. Maybe they’d even be friends. Anyway, that’s what we’d do if we were Kim.”
There’s an actual reason we’re bringing that up beyond patting ourselves on the back: we also stand by a second…
