Tag: Donald Trump

Yes Trump’s personal diplomacy may not have led to any long term solutions for the North Korea problem, but neither has any of his predecessors plans lead to anything either:

Donald Trump’s unconventional summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019 produced nothing, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at a forum here Friday.

The United States under Trump’s presidency was “not traditional for what America’s role has been in the world,” the retired Marine general and former head of Central Command said at a gathering hosted by the Seoul Forum for International Affairs, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Korea Society in Seoul.

The two nations were threatening war in 2017, but Kim and Trump emerged friends from their 2018 summit in Singapore, trading “love letters” afterwards. The two met again the following year in Hanoi, Vietnam, and at the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.

Trump hailed the meetings as momentous developments, but foreign policy experts widely criticized them for failing to produce any agreements between the two countries.

“As far as what came out of it, I would say nothing,” Mattis said of the summits. “I saw nothing that came out of it.”

In 2020, North Korea resumed missile tests and its bellicose statements aimed at the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea has so far this year launched 17 rounds of missile tests, a one-year record.

“President Trump was an unusual leader” who believed in “personal diplomacy,” Mattis said.

“He was convinced that he could work something out with Kim — I was not optimistic,” he added. “My job was to make certain I did everything I could to stand by the [South Korean] Ministry of Defense and make certain the U.S. military … ties were absolutely at the top of their game to ensure that we were buying the time to safely engage in that summit.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It appeared that when Trump was in office he did not have a good relationship with Moon and his latest remarks validate this:

Former president Donald Trump on Friday accused his South Korean counterpart of ripping off the United States, while continuing to highlight his supposed friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who I have gotten to know (and like) under the most trying of circumstances, never respected the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in,” Trump said in a statement.

“President Moon was weak as a leader and as a negotiator, except when it came to the continued, long term military ripoff of the USA… We were treated like fools for decades, however, I got them to pay billions of dollars more for the military protection and services we render.”

“The Biden Administration is not even going to ask for the additional billions South Korea agreed to pay us,” Trump added, referring to current President Joe Biden.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This shows how little President Trump understands the Kim regime. Having an American President taking him home makes Kim look weak and goes against the carefully crafted image that Kim projects in North Korea. There is just no way he could have accepted that offer:

President Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after the two met for a second time at a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019, a new BBC documentary has reported.

The three-part series, titled “Trump Takes on the World,” discloses new details about Trump and Kim’s ultimately unsuccessful negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program.

Business Insider

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un has done two nice acts the past couple of weeks, he apologized for the brutal murder his troops committed and he now is wishing President Trump well after being infected with the coronavirus:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a message to U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, wishing him and first lady Melania Trump a quick recovery from COVID-19, state media reported.

The message came a day after Trump tweeted that he and his wife tested positive for the virus.

In the message, Kim said he “heard the sudden news” that Trump and his wife tested positive for the virus, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“He offered his sympathy to the president and the first lady,” the KCNA said. “He sincerely hoped that they would be recovered as soon as possible. He hoped they will surely overcome it. He sent warm greetings to them.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this statement even more convinced that the North Koreans have no plans to commit an October surprise provocation to influence the U.S. election.

So this is this the real reason a peace deal wasn’t struck between Trump and Kim, Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t take one for the team? 😉

President Donald Trump told Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, to go to North Korea and take one “for the team” after Kim Jong Un appeared to wink at her during a summit in 2018, she said in a new book.

In her memoir, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian, Sanders described an incident at the summit in Singapore with Trump, Kim, and a collection of their aides.

She said in the book, set to be released next Tuesday, that during a session of talks, Kim “reluctantly” accepted a Tic Tac mint from Trump, who “dramatically blew into the air to reassure Kim it was just a breath mint” and not poison. (……)

The former press secretary said that later, in the presidential limousine, she told Trump and John Kelly, who was then his chief of staff, about the incident.

“Kim Jong Un hit on you!” Trump said, according to Sanders. “He did! He f—ing hit on you!”

Sanders replied, “Sir, please stop.”

“Well, Sarah, that settles it. You’re going to North Korea and taking one for the team!” Trump told her, Sanders said. “Your husband and kids will miss you, but you’ll be a hero to your country!”

Trump and Kelly then “howled with laughter,” Sanders said.

Business Insider

You can read more at the link, but if Trump was to hold another summit and brought current Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany with him Kim Jong-un might just surrender on the spot. 🙂

If the White House settles for something less than full denuclearization a deal can likely be reached with North Korea:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will make deals with North Korea “very quickly” if reelected in November.

Trump was referring to his administration’s stalled efforts to get North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions.

“If and when we win, we will make deals with Iran very quickly. We’ll make deals with North Korea very quickly,” he said during a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“Now whatever happened to the word North Korea? You haven’t seen that, have you?” he continued. “If I didn’t win the election in 2016, our country would now be — maybe it would be over by now — but in war with North Korea.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the best deal North Korea will ever agree to is “pretend denuclearization“.