US President Donald Trump declared victory following the historic summit held in Singapore with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un.
Surprisingly, and perhaps naively, the president proclaimed that everyone can sleep well now that North Korea — a sensitive, impoverished nation with the capacity to launch nuclear weapons anytime — no longer poses a threat or a problem.
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
The tweets were the first few ones to go out since he returned to Washington after attending the summit here at Sentosa’s Capella Hotel. The landmark meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader ended quite strangely — the signing of an irresolute agreement, a propaganda video produced by the White House, and a long, meandering press conference filled with puzzling comments by Trump.
Though Trump’s comments about North Korea no longer posing a threat remains to be seen, what is clear is that the hermit kingdom emerged as a huge winner out of the summit. Kim gained legitimacy by being seen as a major player on the world stage and he got the US to cancel military exercises with South Korea — all without giving up anything major, as Vox pointed out.
“North Korea didn’t give up anything major in the joint statement after the summit. The language is incredibly soft, with North Korea not making any major concessions to the United States,” wrote Vox’s It’s considerably weaker, in fact, than what previous presidents had gotten during multilateral negotiations with the North.”
Also, you have to remember that North Korea has repeatedly pledged to abandon its nuclear efforts six times across the past couple of decades. All of them have been lies.
On top of that, Trump’s post-summit compliments and commendations of Kim (a power-hungry, brutal despot) and the dismissal of North Korea’s appalling human rights record is really more of a victory for the other side. For those trying to cling on to any silver lining available, however, the historic summit could be seen as a symbolic US-led step to pave the way to actual denuclearisation in the Korean peninsula.
But don’t be critical about the summit unless you want Trump to call you “fake news”.
So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
