Washington Examiner (September 4)
Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear, “alleges the president is basically losing his mind, and that top White House officials constantly work behind his back to curtail his worst impulses, including the time he supposedly instructed Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. to plan a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.” And the official White House response is perhaps even “more disconcerting than Woodward’s reporting.” In attempting to distract from the allegations, the Trump administration makes the book’s allegations more believable.
Tags: Allegations, Disconcerting, Distract, Dunford, Fear, Impulses, North Korea, Officials, Pre-emptive strike, Response, Trump, White House, Woodward
Washington Post (August 21)
“For foreign countries that have made big bets on Donald Trump’s presidency — such as Russia, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia — the U.S. midterm elections pose a significant problem: Trump’s maneuvering room may be sharply limited if Democrats win control of the House.” The Republicans hold on power looks “so precarious, that foreign commentators are debating what GOP losses in November could mean.”
Tags: China, Democrats, Election, Midterm, North Korea, Precarious, Republicans, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Trump, U.S.
New York Magazine (July 23)
Donald Trump is “slowly realizing it’s North Korea’s reality show, not his.” The President “seems to be learning, the hard way, that epic peace deals with foreign leaders work a lot better when those deals actually exist before celebrating or trying to implement them. North Korea has been blowing the U.S. off since the summit, leaving denuclearization negotiations at a standstill, and the impatient Trump has been fuming at aides about it.”
Tags: Celebrating, Denuclearization, Impatient, Learning, Negotiations, North Korea, Reality show, Standstill, Summit, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (June 12)
“Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un both received what they most wanted from their one-day summit in Singapore on Tuesday…. Whether this photo-op summitry achieved anything beyond the bonhomie is a lot less clear.” There is little indication of real progress. In fact, “if the past is a guide, all of this will be subject to painful and perhaps endless negotiation, and the North will insist on concessions from the U.S. at every stage. Having committed to talks, Mr. Trump will be under pressure to make more concessions lest Kim walk away.”
Tags: Concessions, Kim, Negotiation, North Korea, Photo-op, Progress, Singapore, Summit, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (June 9)
“Donald Trump’s demolition theory of foreign policy won’t work. Even if the president strikes a deal with North Korea, his approach will harm America and the world.”
Tags: Approach, Deal, Demolition, Foreign policy, Harm, North Korea, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (May 23)
“Pyongyang’s announcement last week that it might pull out of the meeting should have been less of a surprise. North Korea has spent decades using similar tactics to shape the diplomatic agenda with the South and Washington, raising hopes of a breakthrough—then sparking a crisis and moving the goal posts.”
Tags: Agenda, Breakthrough, Crisis, Hope, North Korea, Pyongyang, South Korea, Surprise, Tactics, U.S.
LA Times (May 15)
“There is a lesson for Trump in the North’s sudden change of tune…. Kim remains an unpredictable figure, and it is way too soon for Trump to boast about his succeeding where his predecessors have failed. And don’t rush to make room in the Oval Office for that Nobel Peace Prize.”
Tags: Boast, Kim, Lesson, Nobel Peace Prize, North Korea, Predecessors, Trump, Unpredictable
CNN (May 9)
“While Beijing has slowly become mindful of the monster it has unwittingly unleashed, it still believes that it can walk both these very thin lines—a North Korea that is weak but stable, and disruptive yet not explosive—in part because it must: China’s internal instability cannot withstand much in the way of external shocks, of which the leadership is well aware.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Disruptive, External shocks, Instability, Monster, North Korea, Stable, Weak
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
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
