North Korea

See also: anything that could be perceived as a success throughout Trump's adult life.

yea I've heard a lot of right wing types claiming he "solved" North Korea but I honestly have no idea what he did, outside of threatening to nuke them over Twitter

OTOH to be fair to Trump (God knows why) if the situation had gotten worse you know he would have gotten the blame.

This isn't really a process forced to the front because of Trump.
i mean, obviously

it'll be a "win" for trump because he'll claim it, not because he had anything to do with it

motherfucker took credit for the olympics for no reason

Mike Pence should get the credit. He boldly sat in the VIP area at the Olympics and didn’t speak to Kim Jong Un’s sister. It was a real turning point. At that point the world knew that America meant business

The tenure of President Pence will be defined by a string of history-making instances of sitting in a room with one important woman after another without ever acknowledging their presence.

Sorry if this isn't the thread for it, but a friend of mine wrote this (cover!) piece on Pence, his church, and how exactly evangelical Christians justify the whole "we're a persecuted minority" thing to themselves, and I think it's really good: https://harpers.org/archive/2018/05/exiled/

oops actually meant to post that on the U.S. politics thread, sorry

if rapprochement does come to pass (btwn N&SK and/or the US) i don't think that'll be incidental to trump being president. idk if it'll be because of his bluster. i don't get the impression un has been cowered into dealing. if anything it kinda seems like the opposite - that he feels relatively secure and maybe has a kindred spirit in trump. idk i mean they're both close w/ dennis rodman so maybe they're all gonna bro down.

4 more years if this actually happens

or Pence

if this actually happens while he's president i really think he'll win again

“Does anyone, on either side of the political aisle, actually think that the DPRK would give up its nuclear capability without receiving in exchange commitments that the US would not be willing to give?

If the answer is "no" — what happens when this (inevitably) becomes clear?” @wellerstein Alex Wellerstein

I think we really have no idea what NK would accept or what Trump admin would agree to. What about support for unity gov some kind of pseudo constitutional monarchy and withdraw all American troops? If they got the pro reconciliation SK admin on board? Why not?

Kim has never looked comfortable in the role. I wonder if he's been secretly looking for a way out for years.

Xpost we have many statements by the US administration and DPRK. The former has said recognizing a new nuclear state was an impossibility ( Bolton once stated his ideal for the summit would be simply issuing this ultimatum) whereas the latter has made possession of the weapons and technology central to their regime’s sense of identity domestically and how they are viewed internationally.

Kim Jong Un's biggest obstacle to executing a fundamental shift of policy toward ROK and the USA would be getting his military leadership behind him. If they came along, he could pivot instantly. If they united against him, there'd be no chance of striking a deal.

KJ Un is fluent in English, thanks to years in Switzerland schools. He's no less aware of Trump's fundamental issues as a narcissist than we are.

He's offered to end testing. That, and some praise directed at T are all it will take to remove some sanctions. No peace process, no unification, and nothing that threatens the NK elites. Just theater.

don't worry, trump is aware of the history with all of these issues. he definitely knows that NK can be trusted to keep any promises they make

"Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we haven’t given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!" - prez

I haven’t been following this closely, but where does he get the idea they’ve agreed to denuclearization? Is there any grain of truth around which he’s built this claim? Stop question I know, but hey

Not sure if he’s basing that on the fact that South Korean officials have said KJU told them denuclearization was on the table as far as the NK-US summit goes (but that doesn’t seem to align with North Korea’s more recent statement) or if he is drawing that conclusion purely based on their announcement of testing stoppage.

yea if I didn't know better I'd say Trump is getting played here

he doesn't even know what is going on in the first place. he's the guy at the football game who thinks touchdowns are worth 4 points

"Wow, we haven’t given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!" - Trump

In a declaration over the weekend that North Korea would suspend nuclear and missile tests, Mr. Kim spoke as if the North was already a nuclear power, and no longer needed weapons tests, a direct challenge to the Trump administration’s stated goal of denuclearization. Washington has declared that the coming negotiations are about getting rid of the arsenal.

i'd be hopeful that perhaps he could just shut up and that there would be at least ONE U.S. diplomat/State employee who could help drive this toward peace, but he just fired everyone and replaced them with fucking john bolton and mike pompeo

NK's gonna release those three prisoners, keep their nukes and trumps gonna demand the nobel peace prize and get all mad that the fake news media isn't sucking his dick well enough

I’d like to see him get mad about not getting credit for finding a way out of a crisis he created himself.

Pretty much every crisis Donald Trump finds himself in is created at least in part by Donald Trump.

Um ... I guess Kim Jong-un is in South Korea right now?

and for a few seconds, Moon Jae-in was in North Korea. that was a nice gesture on both sides.

Apparently, a lot of nice gestures are planned to be exchanged during this state visit. Not too sure about the substance beyond that, but then the gestures over the past several decades have rarely been nice ones, so this looks like progress.

JUST IN: Kim Jong Un becomes first North Korean leader to cross line dividing the two Koreas since fighting ended in the Korean War https://t.co/l4sg0jXwdm pic.twitter.com/At5zVj9w2V

— CNN International (@cnni) April 27, 2018

Formal end to Korean War will be declared later this year, 65 years after hostilities ceased, North and South Korean leaders agree https://t.co/W6skDX9a7q

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 27, 2018

trump is gonna get the nobel peace prize isn't he

I mean, he might get to share it with the actual Koreans?

A peace prize may come from this but not with Trump

This "too good to be true"/180 degrees change of direction is weird to say the least.

Hope i'm wrong but i think nothing will come out of it except passing the time,which is probably Kims goal here to start with

that pic!

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles/north-korea-to-dismantle-nuclear-test-site-may-23-25-state-media-idUSKCN1ID0H5

If this plays out the way it's been going, I can totally see South Korea's guy getting the Nobel Prize, and Trump getting ignored, then throwing a fit.

the nobel peace prize means nothing. give it to trump wgaf.

igaf

it will be funny when kim jong un gets it

The Nobel Peace Prize may mean nothing, but it would mean something if it was given to Trump or Chairman Un, in the worst way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE6KipuuYJc

Extremely good thread from @mhanham https://t.co/EKHiKjZx2d

— Elizabeth Saunders (@ProfSaunders) May 17, 2018

Which is only to say that NK will continue to work on whatever rocketry & nuke miniaturization problems it encountered in their most recent tests, so as to be ready to test new and improved generations of nuclear-equipped ICBMs when the peace talks fall apart.

I think ROK President Moon was doing a grand job of promoting meaningful increments toward a more lasting peace. Now Trump + Bolton + Pompeo are all set to come stomping in, make crazy demands and totally screw it up.

Alrighty then. pic.twitter.com/ZCJ4fdPqWD

— Vipin Narang (@NarangVipin) May 21, 2018

Can Bolton and Pompeo plz eat a bag of something very objectionable and off-putting? And not a small bag, either.

If you want to learn about how much US leaders actually care about Koreans, listen to Donald Rumsfeld's wistful admiration for South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee, who tortured and massacred so many Koreans that we had to airlift him out to Hawaii https://t.co/fmmUMHjt2P pic.twitter.com/XcopBDl47D

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) May 25, 2018

North Korea’s top three military officials replaced