Los Angeles Times (February 17)
“Persuading
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons will be a long
and grueling process that will require President Trump to make significant
concessions — and even then, the effort may fail.” Although Trump will want to “to
claim spectacular results,” it is likely that any real accomplishments will
only be found in “seemingly mundane details.”
Tags: Concessions, Grueling, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Results, Trump
Bloomberg (May 27)
“The great deal maker has yet to make even a decent deal as president; he hasn’t negotiated anything on health care, immigration or infrastructure, and the trade negotiations with China may be a bust.” In Korea, Donald Trump’s “gut instincts” have resulted in a blunder that’s “worse than it looks: Kim Jong Un appears shrewd. China is stronger. And U.S. allies know not to trust Washington.”
Tags: Allies, Blunder, China, Deal maker, Health care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Kim Jong Un, Korea, Trade negotiations, Trump, Trust
New York Daily News (May 9)
“Kudos to President Trump and his administration for the breakthrough: Three Americans are free from the prison that is North Korea, a meaningful achievement on its own terms that just might suggest better things to come from Kim Jong Un. We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves, though.” Afterall, there were 11 releases during the term of former President Barack Obama.
Tags: Breakthrough, Free, Kim Jong Un, Kudos, Meaningful, North Korea, Obama, Prison, Trump
Businessweek (May 3)
President Trump “wrote a book on dealmaking, only this time nuclear war and peace will hang in the balance, rather than a real estate contract. And on the evidence so far, his sparring partner Kim Jong Un has mastered The Art of the Deal, too.” For example, “Kim has already changed the conversation while giving away very little, beyond a moratorium on nuclear tests that may no longer be needed…. The summit alone is a public-relations coup for Kim. A one-on-one meeting with the U.S. president has been a long-held North Korean goal.”
Tags: Dealmaking, Kim Jong Un, Moratorium, Nuclear tests, Nuclear war, Peace, Trump
The Guardian (April 26)
“There is little chance of a concrete agreement of any kind resulting from the summit” between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on April 27. “Beginning negotiations with a meeting between the two leaders, before any details have been hammered out, is always risky. The meeting will likely be followed by months, if not years, of negotiations at the lower levels before anything is signed.”
Tags: Agreement, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae-in, Negotiations, North Korea, Risky, South Korea, Summit
The Economist (August 5)
“It is odd that North Korea causes so much trouble. It is not exactly a superpower. Its economy is only a fiftieth as big as that of its democratic capitalist cousin, South Korea. Americans spend twice its total GDP on their pets.” And yet everyone is wondering what to do with this rogue. “There are no good options to curb Kim Jong Un.” But a first strike or “blundering into war would be the worst… The world must keep calm and contain Mr Kim.”
Tags: Blundering, Capitalist, Contain, Democratic, Economy, First strike, GDP, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Pets, Rogue, South Korea, Superpower, Trouble, U.S.
LA Times (August 3)
“In reality, a grand bargain with China” is unrealistic for North Korea. It would be difficult for China to shut down Kim Jong Un. Moreover, a grand bargain would “destroy America’s global influence, making it impossible for Washington to maintain stability in strategic areas, particularly in Asia and Europe. Indeed, merely proposing an agreement of this sort would make the U.S. into a paper tiger and compromise American credibility in Asia and around the world.”
Tags: Asia, China, Europe, Grand bargain, Influence, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Stability, Strategic
USA Today (May 4)
Kim Jong Un “governs the cruelest and most tyrannical regime in the world, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…. And President Trump would be honored to meet him.” Trump also called the tyrant “a pretty smart cookie” since “at a very young age, he was able to assume power.” Kim Jong Un is a disgrace. To host him “in the nation’s capitol would be unacceptable, because it would give him undeserved approbation and put his rogue nation on an equal footing with our allies.”
Tags: Allies, Cruelest, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Regime, Rogue, Trump, Tyrannical
CNN (May 2)
President Trump said “that he would be ‘honored’ to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances, the latest in a series of odd moves that suggest Trump may still not grasp the power and signal-sending of such a gathering.” Meeting with Kim Jong Un, the Philippines’ Duterte or other dictators creates the wrong optics. “The visuals are all to the good for these men. It puts them on equal footing with the leader of the most powerful nation in the world…. It’s odd that someone as image conscious as Trump doesn’t get that.”
Tags: Dictator, Duterte, Image conscious, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Optics, Philippines, Trump
New York Times (April 17)
Donald Trump is finally paying attention to North Korea, “but not in a helpful way. His intemperate talk is adding to regional tensions, unnerving allies and likely reinforcing North Korea’s longstanding fear that it could one day be attacked by America.” Trump should avoid letting “overconfidence and bombast, expressed in tweets and public statements, box him into some kind of showdown with the North’s ruthless leader, Kim Jong-un, who has displayed similarly macho traits.”
Tags: Allies, Fear, Intemperate, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Overconfidence, Regional tension, Trump, U.S.
