By Fred Lucas
President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may appear to be a breakthrough between two leaders who openly talked about nuclear war in 2017.
However, national security experts caution against expecting too much from a historic meeting that still has no publicly confirmed date and may have a less defined agenda than similar such meetings between heads of state. The meeting likely will be in late May or early June, based on what Trump has said.
Here are four key issues, according to experts, as the Trump-Kim meeting approaches.
1. What’s Different This Time?
This won’t be the first negotiation between the two countries, but it will be the first bilateral meeting between the president of the United States and a North Korean leader.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s secret Easter visit to Pyongyang to meet with Kim and other North Korean officials was a surprise, but doubts remain on whether the upcoming Trump-Kim meeting will achieve a breakthrough, said Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Asian studies at The Heritage Foundation.
“Trump has abandoned the usual U.S. diplomatic playbook calling for a ‘bottom up’ approach in which diplomats would first attain a carefully crafted agreement with North Korea prior to deploying the president for final signature,” Klingner told The Daily Signal in an email.
“Instead, Trump has gone for a ‘top down’ approach in which he is the chief negotiator. Trump seems unworried by the many diplomatic vacancies in his administration and therefore it is immaterial if Pompeo is confirmed prior to the summit.”
Trump nominated Pompeo to be secretary of state amid preparations for Trump’s meeting with Kim, but the nomination could be stalled in the Senate.
Klingner said:
To prevent a repeat of previous failed diplomatic attempts at denuclearization, the U.S. should insist on detailed agreement text that clearly delineates all sides’ requirements. …read more
From:: Daily Signal – Feed