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There's been some Trump-Kim summit commentary of the variety: 'well, it doesn't hurt that Trump & Kim meet even if it's kinda gimmicky,' or 'hey, at least we're not on the brink of a huge war anymore.' This is thin. 1. There are costs; they're just intangible and a little hard /1
to see. Trump's regular meetings with Kim legitimize: A) Kim as a responsible statesman worthy of the leader of the free world's time and commitment, rather than as the orwellian gangster tyrant he is. It will be harder to keep North Korea out of institutions like the IMF or /2
SWIFT system the more Trump talks about Kim as a good friend. B) N Korea as distinct Korean state in good standing, parallel to the real Korea, a privilege, btw, which the S Korean constitution explicitly rejects. C) NK as a nuclear weapons state, bc Trump keeps setting these /3
meetings even though Kim hasn't given up a single warhead. These legitimation costs might be worth paying if we were pulling a good deal out of the North along the way. But so far we aren't, which is why so many analysts want Trump to stop meeting Kim like this. Trump is /4
legitimizing the world's worst tyranny, and he's not even getting anything for it. Where's that 'art of the deal' we've heard to much about? 2. Declaiming these summits 'progress,' bc at least Trump is no longer about to launch a regional nuclear war is preposterously easy /5
standard. All Trump must do to meet this benchmark is not be, you know, an unhinged nuclear war monger. And it was Trump who ginned up the 2017 war-crisis anyway (not Obama,as Trump keeps saying). So Trump is making 'progress' at unwinding a war scare he created. It's a farce, /6
a faux standard Trump constantly invokes to create the illusion he is making progress on NK when he really isn't. Process isn't progress; a 'friendship' with Kim isn't a goal in itself; and 'historic' gestures are just that - gestures - without some kind of agreement that is /7
at least reasonably balance-positive for the US, S Korea, & Japan. We're all still waiting for that deal. In the meantime, Kim is running away w/ the legitimizing optics, regularly getting to meet a smiling POTUS, next at the W House, while US friends get attacked. Good grief.END
