Trump agrees to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, South Korea says

[Dill]

(03-09-2018, 01:33 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: How is this not bigger news and how is Trump not being praised by all, and how is he even being criticized by some?

Kim Jong Un is a complete psychopath, and the fact that he's talking about denuclearization, not just a freeze in nuclear activity (which would be HUGE in itself), is unbelievable.  

What I also love about it is that we're not cutting the sanctions or anything on them just because he agreed to meet, so we're not just giving in, just in case they're bluffing.  

I can't wait to see how Trump's haters and the Democrats spin this as a bad thing (already happening somewhat on here).

Well, this Trump hater certainly urges caution. I don't see any reason for praise at all yet, but some for concern.

Listen to what you just said--a complete psychopath is talking about denuclearization.  And you are already talking HUGE.  

As BPat noted, there is a pattern of Korean leaders reaching out to talk, agreeing to scale back something, to allow inspections, etc. to ease or postpone sanctions for a time, then reneg once their oil or whatever has been replenished. 

Further, in agreeing to meet face to face with Kim, Trump is granting him status, recognition, and prestige--especially in the eyes of his own people--that no other American president has ever given a North Korean leader. So far that's already a win for Kim. What will/can the U.S. gain? Remember, K J U now has the bomb and missiles that can reach the U.S.  He and his father starved their country to get that stuff. It guarantees there will be no U.S. invasion and it is a sword over South Korea. What are the chances that the impetuous, unfiltered and uninformed Trump will charm him out of those weapons?

Or put this another way, what are the chances that Kim charms Trump? NK has certainly worked up a psychological profile of the thin-skinned America president with impulse control problems, tendencies to risky behavior, little knowledge of diplomacy, anger towards his own national security team, and a weakness for flattery.

Finally, The White House is woefully unprepared to assess the situation he has so quickly accepted. We don't have a Korean ambassador. The guy originally vetted for the position stepped down in protest during Trump's state of the Union speech. Also the State department's special representative to North Korea just stepped down. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-27/trump-s-north-korea-point-man-to-quit-as-talks-seem-more-likely
And there is no assistant secretary for East Asian Affairs . State Department Chaos.

No one really knows what is going on inside NK. Maybe sanctions have worked and Kim will relinquish the weapons, open the country to inspections, in hopes of staving off internal collapse by sanction relief. HUGE then. But I think there is greater likelihood Trump is played, perhaps humiliated, and angered, which could trigger military action against someone as easily triggered as Trump.

ON the plus side I guess this is a presidential "first"; Trump makes history (as he reminds us).