Trump’s meeting with a high-level North Korean envoy is a reminder that his erratic approach to North Korea has alternated dangerously between threatening war and begging for negotiation, making diplomacy, the only viable option, all the more difficult. latimes.com/politics/la-na…
Trump has acted like a politician in search of a political win, not a statesman acting in our national interest. He has offered the impression he’ll settle for a deal—any deal, however hollow—that allows him to claim victory.
Any progress is welcome, but a partial deal that fails to secure complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization is, at best, incomplete. There can be no victory lap at that point.
A deal will only be complete and successful if it permanently rids North Korea of nuclear weapons and its ballistic missiles, as confirmed by a comprehensive verification regime. That's the precise standard the Trump administration has set and the one we must hold them to.
The questions we must continue to ask are: “Where are North Korea’s nuclear weapons?” and “Where are North Korea’s ballistic missiles?”
There can be no “mission accomplished” until the answer is “gone.”
There can be no “mission accomplished” until the answer is “gone.”
