North Korea Expert Wants President-Elect Trump to Negotiate Deal with North Korea

It still amazes me that despite all the evidence to the contrary people still think North Korea will denuclearize if the US just makes the right deal:

Joel Wit, editor of the website 38 North, enters a Geneva hotel for talks with North Korean officials on Nov. 17, 2016. (Yonhap)
Joel Wit, editor of the website 38 North, enters a Geneva hotel for talks with North Korean officials on Nov. 17, 2016. (Yonhap)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump should use his seasoned negotiating skills to cut a deal with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, a U.S. expert Tuesday said after rare talks with a group of senior diplomats from the communist nation.

Joel Wit, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s US-Korea Institute and founder of the website 38 North, made the suggestion in an article to the Atlantic magazine after returning from three days of meetings with North Korean diplomats in Geneva last week.

Wit called for opening negotiations with Pyongyang, saying that the North Korean nuclear issue, one of the biggest problems facing the incoming administration, might also be his biggest opportunity.

“Donald Trump could have an opportunity early in his presidency, if he follows his instincts instead of all the wrong advice he is likely to get on how to deal with North Korea, to prove his Promethean negotiating skills on one of the most serious national-security challenges the United States will confront over the next four years,” he said in the article written jointly with Richard Sokolsky, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

During campaigning, Trump expressed a willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying there is nothing wrong with talking, Wit said. However, the incoming leader appears, like his predecessors, appears to “want to dump the North Korean problem into China’s lap,” he said. (…….)

“No one believes that the North will agree to give up all its nuclear weapons and related infrastructure and abandon its development of ICBMs and missiles,” Wit said. “But there is a great deal that can be done to freeze and then maybe eventually reverse these programs, bringing the world closer to that ultimate objective.” [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Mr. Wit can count me as one of the people who are non-believers in North Korea ever denuclearizing.  Considering what Kim Jong-un has seen happened to other leaders (i.e.: Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi) in recent years that did not have nuclear weapons why would he ever consider giving up his?  The best the US could hope for is a nuclear development freeze which would only last until the North Koreans found some reason to break the deal long after they received whatever benefits they negotiated for.  This is historically what they have done and blamed the US each time they broke the deal.

What in the nature of the Kim regime has changed to think that they will act in any other way this time?

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Tagum City Tim
7 years ago

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to those lucky enough to have turkey to eat.

Second, I have always been of the opinion that north Korea should not be trusted. However, we have an historic opportunity with Donald Trump being the first non-political President and a savvy negotiator to try to engage north Korea rather than continuing to play the brinkmanship game with them. Trump has no political baggage and nobody in the political establishment expects much of him so I say, let him try to engage with Kim Jong-Un. Take Kim a Happy Meal and have a talk with him. What could it hurt? If he fails, no great woop but if he succeeds he drives a stake further into the hearts of those died-in-the-wool politician in Washington who say that he has no business being there in the first place. I am all for that!

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  Tagum City Tim
7 years ago

Need to avoid playing Pyongyang’s game. The UN is at war with North Korea, not just the USA. And South Korea needs to be at the table, too. Wit appears to be a dupe or a shill for Fatty Kim.

setnaffa
setnaffa
7 years ago

And what’s with that hand gesture? Gang sign? Cry for help? Evidence of torture or drug use? Osteoarthritis?

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

Questions:

1. What does America really honestly truly want from North Korea?

2. What more can actually be done to North Korea (that won’t back them into a dangerous corner)?

3. What can/will North Korea do that is a bigger problem than just letting them do whatever they are doing (as long as they do it within their own borders)?

4. Is a North Korean ability to deliver nuclear bombs around the world by ICMB something that should (or can) be addressed now or is it better to let it play out a bit longer and then take harsh action (perhaps after setting clear limits and consequences).

Side Note: Saddam and Gaddafi both gave up their WMDs and got punished for it. Certainly North Korea observed this.

Bonus Queation: Is it even conceivable for North Korea to give up nuke and ICBM programs?

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

“And what’s with that hand gesture?”

Dog whistle.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11424695/Polite-promiscuous…-gay-What-does-your-ring-finger-say-about-you.html

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

Let’s try a link that isn’t intentionally muddled.

POSSIBLY NSFW (gay site)

http://www.gayexplained.com/homosexuality-finger-length/

Mike
7 years ago

I would like to see Trump work out some type of deal that re-starts the joint efforts with north Korea to recover the remains of our troops still unaccounted for from the Korean War. There are around 4,000 sets of remains still in the DPRK and we need a surge effort to recover and identify as many as possible before the remaining siblings of the missing die off. The remains recovery effort in the DPRK was “temporarily” suspended over a decade ago by the Bush Administration. In the past, the US has tried to keep the negotiations over remains recovery separate from other issues, but time is running out and we need a new strategy so we can bring closure to more families.

Tagum City Tim
Reply to  GIKorea
7 years ago

To our esteemed leader GIKorea – I believe that nK is getting a lot of pressure from China behind the scenes to open up substantially as China has done. Perhaps the time has come for nK to open up to the West. You can see China’s irritation in the fact that they have agreed, albeit begrudgingly, to support the latest sanctions against nK. It only took the U.S. two months to crack that nut. Opening up to the West would allow Fatty Kim to be able to go to the Pyongyang McDonald’s and pig out! Kimchi burgers for everybody! Hehehe. Seriously though, I am eager to see if Trump can use his “Art of the Deal” skills successfully on such a tough opponent as Kim III.

Tagum City Tim
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

CH – I see where you are going with your line of questioning. The first question on your list is very telling. The U.S. has always been negotiating on behalf of South Korea. Up until the point where the Fatty Kim regime actually accomplished some limited ICBM technology (which is still far from being proven to really work other than shooting missiles off into space and littering the ocean with the debris) the U.S. had no real interest in nK other than keeping them from attacking South Korea or Japan (both of which would be a stupid idea without the support of the Chinese).

I believe Fatty Kim sees an opportunity to negotiate with Trump allowing his regime to remain in power and get some of the benefits of opening up to the West as China did under Deng Xiaoping.

Denny
Denny
7 years ago

Even if Trump signed a peace treaty with NK in return for NK denuclearization, NK would still keep nukes hidden behind the UN’s backs.

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

And here I just thought it was a sign that he was being forced to cooperate…

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  setnaffa
7 years ago

And then again, there’s this: “They had certain characteristics by which they could be detected, such as the absence of a pulse or heartbeat and the inability to bleed. Most of the aliens, in particular the lowest-ranking members or workers in green jumpsuits, were emotionless and had deformed little fingers which could not move and were bent at an unnatural angle, although there were “deluxe models” who could manipulate this finger.” http://tinyurl.com/hcbwjj7

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