Kim Jong-un is lowering expectations for a deal as the North Koreans are making it clear that they won’t be giving up their nuclear weapons.
Video of former Bush Amb. Christopher Hill on MSNBC:
Hill said, “Well, frankly, in all this hoopla you don’t get a sense the North Koreans are going to give up their weapons. I think it is important to understand that what makes this historical is President Trump is the first U.S. President to agree to meet with these guys. When I was working on the North Korean negotiations, I tried to get president bush to send Kim Jong-un a letter, and he looked at me like I was crazy. This was the attitude and quite understandably because the North Koreans had done so little and were just looking for so much in terms of international recognition. So we have a long way to go on this.”
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As one former Obama foreign policy aide told NBC News:
The “best barometer†for Kim’s seriousness, this person said, is his “level of specificity†he offers in terms of the timing and sequence of steps forward. “The less detailed he is, the more likely this is a new version of the same old playbook.â€
So what we are going to have here is a glorified photo-op for a brutal dictator who won’t be giving up his nuclear weapons program anytime soon, because Trump felt the need for an empty and superficial PR show. The cable networks have gone overboard on their coverage because a meeting that was hyped endlessly by Trump and his supporters as Nobel Peace Prize worthy is likely to result in a bunch of empty hype that will be forgotten three days after the meeting takes place.
In other words, Trump can kiss his Nobel Peace Prize goodbye.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
