The Great “Negotiator”

So the US has given up, unilaterally and without any agreement by either our own Defense Dept. or our ally South Korea, the joint exercises we have engaged with annually with the South. North Korea always purported to hate these, and sometimes lobbed weaponry around when they happened, but both the US and the South had always maintained they were critical for the conventional protection of South Korea against a conventional attack from the North.

Pfft. Gone. Too “expensive” and, in Trump’s own words (though echoing North Korea’s), “very provocative.”

And what does Donald get in return for this? A vaguely worded pinky-swear by the North, echoing similar pledges in the past two decades, to denuclearize the whole peninsula.

Trump insisted he believed Kim was determined to disarm, adding that at the end of the summit, the North Korean leader had offered to destroy an engine-testing site that is part of the country’s missile programme. “He’s de-nuking,” Trump told ABC News. “I mean, he’s de-nuking the whole place. It’s going to start very quickly. I think he’s going to start now.”

You “think he’s going to start now.” Wow.

Well, at least you know precisely what denuclearization is going to look like, right?

Missing from the joint statement was the definition, promoted up until now by the Trump administration, of complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement (CVID). Asked at a press conference why those terms were not included, Trump said: “There was no time. I am here one day.”

Well, I’m glad you gave it all so much due thought and consideration, Donald, before kicking an ally to the curb and giving way on a concrete and verifiable activity in return for your telepathic belief that Kim is going to follow through on just what he’s failed to follow through on multiple times.

And you were there only one day, so those four words couldn’t somehow be included in the text of the agreement? Gee, if only you had a State Dept. that could, I don’t know, do much of anything, they might have had this all set up to go when you arrived for your “one day” rush visit. Or maybe if you had bothered to stick around for more than one day, you might have been able to actually get the agreement that the North is almost certain to violate to have some teeth in it.

This would be a world embarrassment no matter who the president was. That it was this particularly president who has always boasted that he can win any negotiation, and artfully manage any deal he pleases … well, it would be funny, except for how it involves, y’know, North Korea and nuclear weapons.

Kim played Trump like a sohaegeum. And he’ll never admit it, even if he realizes it.

US to suspend military exercises with South Korea, Trump says | US news | The Guardian

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