Jonathan Freedland on
Trump's normalization of a genocidal dictator:
"So Kim leaves Singapore having gained much of the international legitimacy the dynastic dictatorship has sought for decades. But the gifts from Trump did not end there. He also announced an end to US military exercises in the Korean peninsula – the 'war games' which he said were costly and, deploying language Pyongyang itself might have used, “very provocative”. Trump also hinted at an eventual withdrawal of the 28,000 US troops stationed in the Korean peninsula.
And what did Kim give Trump in return for this bulging bag of goodies? The key concession, the one Trump repeatedly invoked, was a promise of 'complete denuclearisation'. Trump held this aloft as if it were a North Korean commitment to dismantle its arsenal, with work beginning right away. To be sure, such a commitment would be a major prize, one that would merit all the congratulation a beaming Trump was heaping on himself. But this is where you need to look at the small print.
First, the text itself says merely: 'The DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.' Kim has promised not 'complete denuclearisation' but simply 'to work toward' that end. Negotiators the world over know is the fudging language you use when you’ve extracted something less than a real commitment. Kim has offered only an aspiration, with no deadline or timetable, not a concrete plan."
It didn't take a genius to see this coming -- KJU got everything, Trump got a photo-op, and the long terms prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula are no different than they were last week. Given how Trump is effectively writing South Korea and Japan out of further negotiations (another huge win for Kim), they may be far worse.
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