Warned that North Korea’s 33-year-old Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un could cancel his June 12 summit in Signapore, Malaysia with 71-year-old Donald Trump, the White House recalculated its strategy going forward. North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said that U.S.-South Korea war games were throwing a monkey wrench into the goodwill amassed with South Korea and the United States. Kim expressed concern that if Trump sets a precondition for the peace talks, they aren’t likely to go anywhere. National Security Adviser John Bolton offended North Korea suggesting that they go the same route as Libya’s late Col. Muammar Gaddifi, whose nuclear disarmament Oct. 19, 2003 eventually led to his overthrow Aug. 22, 2011. Bolton’s comparison to Gaddafi was exactly the wrong message, since Trump has already conceded that Kim can stay in control of Pyongyang.
Instead of setting preconditions for the upcoming summit, Trump should go into the meeting seeking a peace treaty. Taking disarmament off the table would take the pressure off of Kim to acquiesce to U.S. demands.for unilateral disarmament. “We’ll have to see,” Trump told reporters about Kim’s latest warnings about canceling the June 12 summit. Kim suspended high-level talks with South Korea at Border Village in the DMZ because of the ongoing war games with the U.S. When Kim released three U.S. citizens of Korean descent accused of spying to Vice President Mike Pompeo May 8, it was a definite peace offering by Kim. Holding war games was a slap-in-the-face, jeopardizing all the goodwill built up since the Seoul Winter Olympics. Trump should not only postpone the U.S.-South Korean war games, he should remove all preconditions for the summit.
Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s goal for the summit should not be focused on de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Trump should be 100% focused on creating a peace treaty with Pyongyang, something that eluded the U.S. and South Korea at the end of the Korean War July 27, 1953. Trump and Co. should be doing everything possible between now and the June 12 summit to establish goodwill, including suspending all joint military exercises. Pompeo’s team should inform his North Korean counterpart Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho that the U.S. has no preconditions but seeks a lasting peace treaty. Once Washington and Pyongyang sign a peace treaty, then the time’s right to raise other issues, including de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. With a peace treaty—not unilateral nuclear disarmament—Trump’s in the best place to reduce the nuclear threat.
North Korea’s first vice minister of foreign affairs, Kim Kye Gwan warned the State Department about bullying Kim’s regime. “If the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear disarmament, we will no longer be interested in such a dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceedings to the . . .summit,” said Gwan, telegraphing clearly there can be no preconditions heading into the face-to-face meeting. Bolton’s comments about Libya disarming its nukes was exactly the wrong message to send to Pyongyang. Kim needs reassurance from the U.S. that the summit’s designed to build rapport and work toward a peace treaty. “We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we don not hid our feeling of repugnance toward, said the first vice minister, Kim. Bolton needs to zip-it before he torpedoes what everyone hopes is a productive summit.
Given the bad blood between Bolton and North Korea, he should be kept in the background, certainly refraining from counterproductive comparisons with Libya. Focusing on disarmament is precisely the wrong strategy with North Korea, requiring rapport-building and eventual peace talks. “[The] world knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate,” said Kwan, rejecting Bolton’s public remarks. Heading into the June 12 summit, Trump learned fast how inadvertent comments can sabotage the event. Bolton should have known his Libyan comments would rattle Pyongyang before Trump finds a way to work his magic. Once thing’s for sure: Bolton hasn’t read Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal.” Administration officials should get on the same page, letting Trump make any-and-all comments before Trump and Kim get down to brass tacks.
Reading between the lines, Kim wants some peace offering from Trump before the June 12 summit. If Trump postpones war games with South Korea, it’ll go a long way in letting Kim know he’s going the extra mile for peace. Controlling the mouths of administration officials is essential before the June 12 summit, certainly no comparisons to Iraq and Libya. “We have already stated our intention for de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and made clear on several occasions that preconditions for the de-nuclearization is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States,” Kwan said. Kwan’s trying to let Trump know his government is working in good faith to fulfill commitments made to de-nuclearize but it must been done without coercions from the U.S. Letting Kwan know the U.S. wants a peace treaty would be a positive step.
