Is North Korea Trying To Signal Its Ready for A Summit With President Obama?

That is what former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is claiming:

Bolton, currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also said the North may be trying to “reprise circumstances at the end of the Clinton administration,” referring to late 2000, when relations between Washington and Pyongyang warmed so significantly that then-President Bill Clinton even considered visiting the North.

A Clinton trip did not materialize, but a top North Korean military official paid a visit to Clinton at the White House in October 2000 and then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled to Pyongyang later that month and met with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader.

“Although Kim’s father had to be satisfied with a visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Obama would be an easier get. Kim could figure that even a farewell visit by peripatetic Secretary of State John Kerry would at least return the North to the status quo in 2000, after long years of isolation from Washington’s top leadership,” Bolton said.

The North could also be targeting Obama’s successor, he said.

“Kim may be calculating that Hillary Clinton would like a significant foreign-policy accomplishment early in her presidency, thereby demonstrating her seriousness and, early on, setting herself ahead of Obama’s international pace,” Bolton said. “While Donald Trump authored ‘The Art of the Deal,’ Kim knows that Pyongyang has outmatched Washington in every negotiation since the Korean War. He may think the challenge is worth the risk.”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I just don’t see President Obama going to Pyongyang or sending someone like John Kerry there as well.  Pardon the pun, but the Kim regime is just too radioactive and has been proven repeatedly that it cannot be trusted that I just don’t see how this helps the legacy of an outgoing Presidency?  Even a future President I think would have a hard time politically justifying taking a trip to North Korea unless something extraordinary was to occur.  I guess we will see what happens.