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The Trump Kim bromance on the rocks?

Published by digby on January 1, 2020

The Trump Kim bromance on the rocks?

There was no contract, although Trump the alleged deal-making genius probably thinks there was. He’s not a details guy…

…the two sides issued only a statement of just over 400 words that touched on four vague issues: 

  • A pledge to “establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.” DPRK are the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
  • Joint “efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
  • A pledge to work “toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
  • The return of the remains of U.S. service members who were killed during the Korean War.

There was also no promise to stop testing in the document — Kim had made his unilateral pledge to stop testing in April 2018, saying at a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea that North Korea had “verified the completion of nuclear weapons” and would end nuclear tests — and only a vague reference to “denuclearization.”

Everyone said at the time that the professionals would get together and fill out the details. Kim was having none of it. He wanted to meet with Trump in person. So they met again in Hanoi but the meeting was cut off prematurely over sanctions relief. And Trump even traveled to Korea and stepped over the demilitarized zone boundary, but nothing came of that either.

Trump’s plan to give himself and Kim Jong Un high profile international fawning press and offer him some good deals on beach condo developments doesn’t seem to to have translated into Kim giving up his nuclear arsenal. Imagine that.

Maybe it succeeded in keeping him from launching an attack but it certainly doesn’t seem to have kept him from continuing development of his missile systems and the sanctions have been largely ignored because everyone assumed that Trump won’t do anything to hurt his bff so they’re pretty much toothless.

The last we heard on the “negotiations” from Pyongyang was:

“As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can brag about,” Kim Kye Gwan, a veteran diplomat, said in a statement carried by North Korean state.

Recall that Trump also strong-armed the Japanese Prime Minister into nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize for his great work with North Korea.

I have no idea what’s going to happen. I am relieved that there has been no nuclear attack, so thanks for that Trumpie. But it appears he’s run out his string. Kim just needed a little more time to get his arsenal online. He doesn’t need him anymore.

Oh, and if you think the resignation/firing of Bolton will help this situation, you are right. That guy is a maniac on North Korea. But it doesn’t look to me as if we exactly have a brain trust in charge today:

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