President Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Tracy Wilkinson and Barbara Demick, Hardford Courant: Analysis: Singapore summit agreement recycles old deals, defers the hard work
The diplomatic history of U.S.-North Korean relations is littered with broken promises to denuclearize and deals gone sour.
At their meeting in Singapore, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a document remarkably similar to, and as vague as, those that have failed in the past to bring peace to the Korean peninsula and rid it of nuclear arms.
The summit, for all the anticipatory hype, was never expected to produce much in the way of new policies or strategy. But it actually produced less than many analysts expected.
The meeting did succeed in turning down the heated rhetoric, shifting the relationship to one of diplomacy instead of threatened war and suggesting a new, tentative rapprochement between two longtime foes.
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WNU Editor: The above analysis is what I have been reading .... and hearing .... and seeing from political pundits, foreign policy experts, and the media all day. And their criticisms are all the same. Are they right? In my opinion no. The momentum is for change .... I can sense it on the Korean peninsula .... specifically in North Korea. How do I know .... because I experienced the same thing when I was growing up in the Soviet Union .... specifically in the 1980s when President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev started to negotiate nuclear and missile agreements. I had access to the Western press during this time .... and everyone in the West .... specifically in the U.S. .... were saying the same thing then as they are saying now. But where they failed then .... and where they are failing now .... is that they did not consider how the average Soviet felt .... or today .... how the average North Korean feels. Everyone wants a better life, and Kim Jong-un comes from a generation that is different from what his father and grandfather experienced. Is Kim Jong-un a North Korean Mikhail Gorbachev .... definitely not. But when Kim Jong-un crossed the DMZ two months he change the dynamics on the Korean Peninsula .... and it is going to reverberate everywhere .... especially on the Peninsula.
15 comments:
The Western media is an echo chamber. No original thinking and intensely partisan against conservative or GOP ideas.
The way I look at it is pretty simple. Sanctions are hurting the DPRK ruling party; China is showing how to a dictatorship secure in its power while everybody gets richer, party loyalist or not. Kim is seeing a different future with a real economy and the Kims getting billionaire rich.
The trick will be to setup a deal that precludes the Kims from backsliding 10 years or more from now.
The world we live in today is not the same world of even two months ago, never mind two years ago. The Anglo-American financial looting/regime change war method of running the world can no longer be tolerated by the vast majority of humanity. Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-un is only the latest sign of that. The collapse of the G-7 is another. The "pundits" live in the old world but they can't accept that it's dead. They will also be swept into the dust bin of history.
Watching cnn, msnbc to see how they are reacting..... seems to be an added degree of scourn and scourge on their faces. This to me Is a good indication that real progress was made at the summit
Too big of a change on the peninsula would not be welcomed by the chinese though.Since in their view it would allow the US to focus almost exclusively on the South China Sea without being that bothered by the risk of trouble in Korea.The chinese don't want a war on the peninsulat but they don't want things to be too quiet either.
Nothing happened. A few hours of reality TV entertainment. The statement signed is so vague, so amorphous and it could mean anything or nothing to anybody depending on their perspective.
And what does this mean: "It does take a long time to pull off denuclearization, But once you start the process it's pretty much over. You can't use them."
That makes zero sense. In addition Trump also "knows a lot about airplanes".
JFC.
To be fair WNU Editor, you said all this before the summit was cancelled, changed your tone a little and subsequently back to what it is now since it got uncancelled.
Anon,
I have never had any illusions about Kim Jong-un. Never. I was also not surprised that President Trump cancelled it. I was/am surprised that he still went along with it though, and they had the summit yesterday. I thought that it was too early for such a summit to happen .... too many unknowns and too many differences on the key issues. But what is done is done .... we are now entering uncharted territory. Where it is going to get tricky is how the South Koreans and North Koreans will react. The North does not respect the South Korean government under Moon .... and that is (and will be) a problem. But as I said This is all uncharted territory now .... the key is to be flexible, and to also be quick to change ones position and opinion as events unfold.
The promises of a POTUS can be thrash with the successor. If Kim is not stupid he chose a deal of years to complete, so he can observe what for real is changed, modelling is policy on that.
North and South Korea can be one only on a mixed model of both. Other options can only result in subjugation of one side, with nasty consequences for the population subjugated.
Young Communist. The leaders in North Korea may favor it, but I can assure you that the people in North Korea will not want a mixed model. They want the old system thrown out. This will take some time .... but I can sense that the people in North Korea are now growing impatient. If they were happy .... Kim Jong-un would never have gone to Singapore.
there are so many knowing pundits commenting here that I am a bit shy about offering up anything. Let me just say: we will see if the dinner is done, prepared as it should be, can be served to all parties. Till such time, I wait for the chefs to finish what they are doing to see how well the job has been done
Carl said it perfectly.
Hmmm, me thinks all this is an over reaction. I thought we were told, correctly, that this was the first step. How about we let the process happen before we all go crazy trying to grade it. It's like your telling me the cake tastes terrible but it's not even in the oven yet!!
Ah.... your a Clinton. Got it.
The capacity of Trump supporters to delude themselves never ceases to amaze.
Godspeed rubes.
Nah. the G7 did not collapse. they will reorganize, sans Trump and his nation till such time as Trump is gone...yes things change. But what we have in this change is China expanding, first simply economically, ie in Africa and their growing economy and wealth; next China beginning slowly to move militarily and/or politically, as in China seas. And our response? a plane, a ship skims close to their new outposts. That will show them!
As for N.K.: we simply do not know where this is going at this early stage. China remains at their border, supported them economically, does not want Am forces in North, at their border...so: will we withdraw from the South? will the country try to unify with the South? Will they decide to have state run capitalism, as in China? And no: bad mouthing our major papers and tv channels will not do if you get your news and ideas ONLY from Fox
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