Here’s some thoughts on Kim and Trump after covering the US and North Korea for the past 18 months for @thenation.
1. There was a turning point last July when North Korea said in response to US flights of B1-B bombers over Korean skies that it was considering sending a missile toward Guam. Then, when the US let it be known that its next military exercises might be scaled down, NK backed off.
2. The exercises, however, were only diminished in size. But the US and South Korea continued to train in decapitation strikes of North Korea’s leadership, with SEAL Team 6 on one of the US submarines. NK responded with its longest missile test yet and a bomb test.
3. Also in July, both Koreas became aware, through reports on NBC, that the US was considering preemptive strikes on NK nuclear and missile sites from B1-Bs flying in international airspace. In response, SK Pres. Moon demanded that SK be consulted before any attack. US agreed.
4. In August, the Trump White House continued to warn NK against “threatening” the US. Meanwhile, NK continued to say it wouldn’t talk about nukes unless the US dropped its “hostile policy.” In DC, people in gov’t & the think tanks were talking openly about US military action.
5. Then, in the fall, Americans taking part in unofficial “Track Two” talks with North Korea came back with word that NK was willing to accept some kind of freeze for freeze offer as a way to begin talks with the US. But the war talk intensified in Washington.
6. The situation continue to escalate until January 1, when Kim Jong Un made his offer to President Moon to open talks and send a high-level delegation to the winter Olympics. This was an overture, but it was a response by Kim to Moon’s offer of engagement from the year before.
7. Moon accepted almost immediately, and the Olympic truce began. What happened next was quite remarkable – the highest level visit to South Korea by North Korean officials since the end of the Korean War. Korea had taken the reins, And the US had little choice but to follow.
8. Despite US misgivings & naysaying from huge numbers of American liberals and conservatives, Moon’s diplomacy turned out to be successful. Before agreeing to a summit, he wanted NK to commit to peace talks with the US. The result is what we saw today: A peace process. END
9. One last point: Another key shift, also first announced by unofficial Track 2 US negotiators, was Kim's announcement after his last bomb and missile tests that North Korea has completed its "state nuclear force." This indicated that NK would no longer be testing. US heard it.
