Trump, Kim sign "comprehensive" document

[Dill]

(06-12-2018, 06:11 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I tend to agree based upon "we are in this situation right now and need to move on from here" (meaning, we never should have let this get to this point, IMAO).

I'm no fan of Trump, as most of you know. But I have stated several times before that I think this may be a problem he is capable of sorting out. It is not "sorted out" yet, but I still believe that. North Korea has needed a 'different approach' for several decades now.

LOL your decoding of polit-speak is right on.

A comment and a question, though.

Seems to me Clinton's Agreed Framework was a good "approach," which could have been better managed. Bush/Bolton's rejection of that framework turned NK back on the nuke road, and quickly.  Even so, isolation and sanctions have, I think, also been a "good" approach given the remaining options after the collapse of the AF. Trump ramped up the pressure for while. One especially effective and new ploy was Tillerson convincing countries to send back Korean workers, whose remittances were keeping the NK economy afloat.  Hard to know if NK was brought to the brink of collapse by all this, but if it was, then the big summit appears to be relieving that pressure with no real return.

I don't see how NK can be "sorted out" without the kind of meticulous groundwork which prepared the way for the Iran Deal. And I don't see even that working without partnering closely with China, SK, Russia, and Japan. Do you see Trump leading such an approach? In my view, even if he got such a process started he would likely foul it up by contradicting statements by his representatives and impulsively adding or changing conditions in response to pressure from Fox and his base. He could not pull together the international support needed while at the same time insulting potential partners and threatening trade wars or abandonment of existing treaties.

The kind of "sorting out" I see most likely from Trump would follow a brief military escalation, a result with no real winners.