If we really get inspectors, that is some progress. It’s not nearly enough - no list of weapons and facilities, nothing tangible on missiles & warheads, nothing on human rights - but today was probably enough to keep the process limping along. Which was probably N Korea’s /1
intent: give up just enough to keep Trump from giving up, but use the fact that both Moon and Trump are vulnerable - bc they’ve tied themselves so tightly to a NK deal and need the appearance of success - to give up little. And along the way, Kim picks up more photo-ops of him /2
looking like a statesman, yukking it up with Samsung and LG this time. This imagery, like that from previous summits, normalizes NK as just another country on par with SK, rather than treating it as the orwellian tyranny it really is. So score another propaganda win for NK. I /3
wonder if chaebol investors like being manipulated that way? As for nukes and missiles, today basically kicks the can down the road, as all this year’s summits have. It’s probably time to stop giving Kim content-free summits with great imagery and push this down to bureaucrats /4
and diplomats in drab rooms with no TV coverage so that we can finally start getting some hard commitments - on both sides. At this point, after four SK and US summits with Kim, it should be pretty obvious that a Trump-Kim 2 will produce nothing real. Naturally Trump will do /5
it anyway though for the TV ratings and media attention. But after 4 summits with no serious NK movement on the major strategic issues, another Trump summit is probably an error, especially if Trump were to give another unhinged presser like the one after Singapore (unless we /6
got an upfront concession from NK for the fact of a second POTUS summit, which we won’t because Trump gave up the first one in Singapore for nothing, so Kim now thinks he’s entitled to these). END
