Trump crosses the DMZ, but his diplomacy is on the road to nowhere
In an alternative universe — let’s call it Earth 2 — the Singapore summit in June 2018 between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was swiftly followed by a full and complete accounting of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction. Teams of lower-level U.S. and North Korean negotiators then spent the next seven months hammering out the details of “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” — the goal set by the Trump administration. At every turn, the North Korean side proved more accommodating than expected. Clearly Kim was a different ruler from his father and grandfather. So determined was he to kick-start North Korea’s economic development that he was willing to give up the nuclear weapons that his regime had spent decades and countless billions of dollars developing.
Only a few final issues remained to be negotiated when Kim and Trump met again in Hanoi in February. But after several days of arduous, painstaking negotiations, the two leaders reached a breakthrough. And then, on June 30, 2019, Trump traveled to the demilitarized zone separating North Korea and South Korea to sign a denuclearization treaty with Kim. Shortly thereafter, teams of international inspectors began swarming all over North Korea to begin dismantling and carting away its nuclear, chemical, biological and missile facilities. Trump won the Nobel Peace Prize and claimed vindication for writing, after the Singapore summit, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
Back on Earth 1, needless to say, events have followed a different path. More than a year after the Singapore summit, North Korea still has not delivered an accounting of its weapons of mass destruction programs — the prerequisite for real progress on dismantlement. North Korea has continued to build nuclear weapons and missiles; it is now more dangerous than it was a year ago.
The only concrete concession from North Korea was to allow the repatriation of some remains of U.S. service members killed during the Korean War. But despite Trump’s efforts to pretend otherwise, North Korea has stopped cooperating with the Pentagon’s human-remains recovery teams. Trump touts the fact that North Korea is no longer testing nuclear weapons or long-range missiles — a test moratorium that began before, not after, the Singapore meeting — but it has continued testing shorter-range missiles. In return for North Korea’s forbearance from more provocative tests, the United States has discontinued major exercises with South Korea, degrading the allies’ military readiness.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-crosses-the-dmz-but-his-diplomacy-is-on-the-road-to-nowhere/ar-AADEjvi?li=BBnb7Kz
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