US President Donald Trump believes he is capable of reaching a deal with North Korea that will be a "very good one for the world," he said, after agreeing to talks with Pyongyang following Kim Jong-un's invitation for a meeting.
"The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World," Trump tweeted on Friday evening, adding that the time and the place of the planned meeting is still to be determined.
Trump
agreed to hold discussions with North Korea, provisionally expected sometime in May, after a South Korean delegation, which met with Kim on Monday, delivered his personal invitation for talks to the US president.
However,
before any agreement can be reached between the adversaries or sanctions can be lifted, Washington will require Pyongyang to take "concrete and verifiable steps" towards denuclearization of the peninsula. "This meeting won't take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.
Announcing the monumental breakthrough in the Korean stalemate at the White House on Thursday, South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong noted that Kim Jong-un is "committed to denuclearization," and has "pledged" to refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests until talks with Trump take place. Surprisingly, according to the official, Kim also showed understanding towards the US-South Korean drills, which have greatly contributed to the ongoing tensions in the region.
While the North seems to be keen to engage in diplomacy,
the US has yet to offer any concessions or promises. "The United States has made zero concessions, but North Korea has made some promises," Sanders noted. "For the first time in a long time, the United States is actually having conversations from a position of strength, not a position of weakness like the one that North Korea finds itself in."
"
I think that the President is getting exactly what he wants. He is getting the opportunity to have the North Koreans actually denuclearize," Sanders added.
The Korean peninsula has been divided since 1953, after an uneasy armistice suspended the bloody, three-year conflict between the Communist North and the US-allied South. In a historic move toward national reconciliation, last month North and South Korean athletes competed together at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
For months, the Trump administration has applied "maximum pressure" on North Korea to tackle the country's ballistic missile and nuclear program. Amid the unprecedented level of sanctions which the US has unilaterally imposed, Washington has also continued to maintain military pressure on Pyongyang, sending in armadas to Korean waters and conducting flyovers near Korean airspace. The administration also made clear that, if diplomacy fails, it is ready to pursue a military option to force N. Korea to denuclearize.
Comment: It has been interesting to watch the MSM response to this news.
Moon of Alabama summed it up well:
The mainstream commentariat:
Then: Trump is a madman who wants to lead us into war against North Korea.
Now: Trump is a madman who wants to lead us towards peace with North Korea.
Rory Yeomans
I welcome the announced meeting of Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump.
The imperial military-industrial complex will do its best to sabotage it. Billions of dollars of planned revenue may soon evaporate.
Kim Jong Un has so far shown himself as an excellent strategist. He offered direct talks at the exactly right moment. Trump blindsided all the hawks, worrywarts and bureaucrats in his staff by suddenly agreeing to them. If this brinkmanship succeeds the South Korean President Moon deserves a peace price for arranging it.
Whatever Trump does, it's wrong, at least according to his critics. Take Senator Jeff Flake, for instance:
President Trump's historic North Korean breakthrough yesterday has put one of his biggest critics, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in an awkward position, as just the day before, the Washington Examiner published an interview in which the outgoing Senator skeptically claimed that only a military strike could stop North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons, and declared "that's just not a good option."
While its specifics have yet to be finalized, President Trump's planned meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will undoubtedly go down as a landmark moment in United States foreign policy, as no sitting American President has ever met with a North Korean leader (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton visited the country after they left office). And more importantly, Kim Jong Un has pledged to cease conducting nuclear tests and begin the denuclearization process.
In fact, when the news broke earlier this week that North Korea sought a meeting with President Trump - two days before a top South Korean National Security Advisor announced that President Trump would accept the invitation - even some of the President's harshest liberal critics praised the progress he was making on the issue. The Atlantic and Washington Post both noted how President Trump's unique approach was putting new pressure on the communist country, and CNN's Chris Cuomo publicly applauded it, telling his viewers: "Congratulations to the Trump administration; they were able to move the ball here."
But Flake remained unimpressed, telling the Washington Examiner "This talk that we could somehow by threatening them or by sanctioning keep them from getting to a point where they sit down at the table as a legitimate nuclear threat was unreasonable, kidding ourselves."
Flake continued on to falsely claim that "By the time we get down to sitting at the table with them and actually have negotiations, then, they may be all the way there [as a nuclear power]."
Flake may have a point there. But he's still missing the point. All North Korea wants is to be left alone, i.e. to have its security guaranteed. If that can be done so without nukes, nukes can be gotten rid of. But Kim needs a willing partner in peace for that, someone whose word can be trusted, and who can back up that word with action.
See also:
Comment: It has been interesting to watch the MSM response to this news. Moon of Alabama summed it up well: Whatever Trump does, it's wrong, at least according to his critics. Take Senator Jeff Flake, for instance: Flake may have a point there. But he's still missing the point. All North Korea wants is to be left alone, i.e. to have its security guaranteed. If that can be done so without nukes, nukes can be gotten rid of. But Kim needs a willing partner in peace for that, someone whose word can be trusted, and who can back up that word with action.
See also: