Singapore is a big loser. Not only did it lose a big chance for propaganda of the city state, it got ridiculed by a US Senator as a boring city!
it seem a rash thing to move out of the talks after the north Korean meeting each other and moving the process to at least 60 percent
The schooling continues as Kim now gives Trump "time and opportunity" to ask to come back to the table
Kim 4
Trump 0
We should have given Trump time and opportunity to reconsider stealing the 2016 election when our intelligence agencies first discovered it
China needs North Korea to denuclearize more than anyone. A nuclear North Korea can pull China into a nuclear war, which China surely does not want.
Consider the following scenario: North Korean regime is on the verge of collapse. Plausible because regimes like North Korea are strong, but brittle. Kim, as a desperate measure attacks the South. The U.S. is drawn in. China has a big problem. This problem is worse if N. Korea has Nukes.
Another scenario: The idiot Americans use N. K.'s nukes as excuse for attack. What does China do?
Other scenarios:...
Imagine being in a poker game with Kim and Trump. China is, and so are we.
China would be much better off without a nuclear N.K.
Gee maybe Boltin, Pence and Pompeas threats to NK had a negative effect. Hpw ridiculous is this administration? Very.
1
So where are we now after Iran and North Korea do not appear to be receptive to the Trump Deal, a war on 2 fronts in the Middle East and in Asia ,and who are our allies at this point? The last loud-mouthed strongman who found himself in this predicament was almost blown up by his own generals and got torched in his bunker, after ruining his country.
Humans now hold the power of the stars above us. It's like small children running around, playing with small bombs. Sooner or later one or two of them in a fit of anger will throw their small bombs to the ground. The game is over. Do the stars above us care? Does the Universe care? I hear an empty silence. We came, we went.
The meeting between Xi and Kim a few weeks ago was the tip-off that North Korea would not be so amenable to this administration's maneuvers re North Korea. The winner here has been and may continue to be China. The bottom line with our nemesis has always involved their economy, and I am sorry to say that they are light-years ahead of us in the art of manipulation to its benefit. Kim is no match for Xi, and he knows it. And he has far more to gain from a strong alliance with this vast Asian nation which ultimately controls his country. Re Moon, unfortunately, South Korea may just lose this global game of chess. Their position is vulnerable. And for this administration..it seems as if its tactics are both risky and ignorant. As with Kim, Trump is no match when it comes to Xi. With Bolton feeding Trump's ego with misguided and ominous advice, it is anyone's guess what will happen next. Stay tuned...
3
Chinese people are very patient and know the next president will probably rip up all of Trumps “achievements” just like he did to Obama. Kim and Xi will be in power for 20 years unless they deal with Trump on his terms.
Looks like Trump is exporting America itself to China.
The second Bush's Iraqi war turned Iran into a regional superpower and now Trump's debacle with Korea is making China even stronger. Only conservative Republicans can both exponentially increase military spending and the power of our enemies.
Trump and Bolton - two inept, incompetent and just plain stupid people. These "brilliant negotiators" have just handed North Korea and China everything they could have hoped for and gotten nothing in return. And all for a grand photo op and an investigation distraction.
The ship of state is on the rocks.
6
I disagree that the Chinese dictator is now in a stronger position to influence these talks.
They had their chance and blew it.
They could have intervened after the meeting to pull the rug from under our POTUS by telling the fat puppy, "never mind, you signed it. But now slow down and offer a different interpretation."
After June 12, we would have been hard pressed to deliver a Gaddafi to this little rocket man and his master's, the Chinese.
Now, it is entirely our call.
Whether he provokes us or not, a "Gulf of Tonkin" incident is the only excuse we need to deliver him from this blessed earth.
And the Chinese will simply be bystanders - and perhaps a collateral damage.
Cadet Bone Spurs leading a war campaign? What could possibly go wrong?
All Bolton had to do to be "effective" was to just sit there with his skull & crossbones emblazoned luggage on the world stage. Instead, he had to open his mouth.
Nice job, Bolty.
4
Mistake #1: trying to get concessions from China on trade and NK at the same time.
Mistake #2: breathing a word of Libya
2
But...But....the Nobel peace prize.....what about the Nobel peace prize?
1
TRUMP is getting played like a puppet by Kim and Xi. What an embarrassment to the US he is.
3
China obviously guaranteed N. Korea support, including financial support, so sanctions won't have an impact any more.
China is also N. Korea's neighbor while the US is on the other side of the ocean with a here today, gone tomorrow attitude.
Not just for N. Korea, but who do you need to be friends with over the long-term if you're in Asia?
I'm not surprised that this fell apart. China is building an artificial island in the sea off their coast in order to strengthen their air defenses. North Korea will be their nuclear proxy. It's their goal to be the dominant power in Asia.
2
Welcome to the Chinese Century. Brought to you by Trump and his Collaborators. Seriously.
7
The Chinese are fed up with the North. It took 7 years before Xi met with Kim. And there is no indication of a warming of relations after the second meeting. The premise of this article is that the Chinese were worried about the success of a Kim-Trump summit. More likely, Xi knew that Kim would try to play Trump and the meeting would turn into a fiasco. Kim drives his best friend crazy. He surely would be even worse with his worst enemy. I’m betting that Xi was looking forward to the summit. Even world leaders enjoy a good laugh.
1
You've got to have some sympathy for Trump. After all, who could have possibly imagined that dismantling the entire nuclear capacity of the most secretive regime in the world would be so complicated?
1
Trump deserves the Noble Peace Prize.
LOSING. Welcome to the Chinese Century, brought to you by the GOP, and their pandering fool. Just saying.
3
Mr. Trump is a gift that keeps on giving,
To China, North Korea, and Fearless Leader Vladimir!
2
“You can’t fire me, I quit!”
Thank God for President Reductio Ad Absurdum? What a sick cosmic joke we have become.
1
Sadly, Trump seems to make toxic every mission, relationship he engages in. Its unlikely that China or Russia will put sanctions on N. Korea now, since it was the US that cancelled the talks.
3
Maybe the Kim regime's whole objective in this outreach was waking China up to North Korea's options, to force China to ease sanctions. Once this was accomplished, no need to make strategic concessions. Just take a look at the photo leading this article: Kim and Xi "this month in Dalian, China, where the two seemed more friendly than in a previous meeting. "
1
I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out that Trump cancelled the summit with North Korea for the simple reason that he was unprepared for it. Like a high school student calling in sick the day of the test because he hadn't studied the material. In any case, this is yet another example of Trump not following through on his pronouncements. But that is not really news.
5
.... and for those who are inconsolable at the untimely ending of this glorious meeting that was going to set world peace forever AND bring in that coveted Nobel Peace Prize.....
...... then let me point out that over in the White House Gift Shop, that there is dazzling bling - golden coins and other knick-knacks of great worth! - and they are on sale now to celebrate this, "The Greatest Fake Event Ever"!
Buy now!
Quantities are limited!
.... and, sorry - but all credit cards are forbidden.
"In God We Trust".... but all others must pay cash!
1
Trump puppet might just be realizing that he's been played by China, South and North Korea... in Asia...
And in the White House by the bellicose, hard-liners, always with extreme directions.....like Trump himself, John Bolton, Pompeo and Pence...
1
This whole thing had President Xi and China stamped all over it right from the beginning.
SAD
China’s long game against us will pay off. The Sociopath in the Oval Office only makes it worse. How much worse? Wait and see.
1
Look at the picture. Check out the face on this disgrace. All of this is just a lot of nonsense, a distraction to keep everyone from seeing what this incompetent is really up to. Also, all those words
that Kim said about Pence are true. Kim recognizes a loudmouth, fraud when he sees one.
1
There was only so much Moon could do to counter the war-mongering Bolton, the very same Bolton who, during the Bush administration (in addition to advocating the invasion of Iraq), blew up the progress made by the Clinton administration before NK had a single nuke.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/04/19/how-wa...
(Note that neither of these disasters would have happened if the wisdom of American voters were heeded rather than overruled by the Electoral College)
8
Trump got played and took the bait. North Korea looked like the adult in the room with minimal effort. And now North Korea will be open for business for China and other countries. The U.S. has very little ground to stand on because of Trump, PEnce and Bolton not being disciplined. Just another bloated promise from Trump that his team did not deliver on.
18
Trump is out played again and again by much smarter and experienced leaders, getting tired of that winning yet?
13
Trump stupefies with the power of NO.
-----------------------------------------------
Trump trumps with his "your fired" commands.
So far, the President's bluffing is working to a tee.
But as Lincoln said,"you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. But you can't fool all of the people, all of the time."
5
Who says that bribe to Trump from the Chinese wouldn't bring results? It's all about the money for the Trump's.
9
Summit Bankruptcy. Classic Trump, and NOT in a good way.
13
Trump was desperately looking for diversion from the Mueller investigation and his other domestic troubles. He desperately needed a success story after irresponsibly withdrawing from the Iran deal. Mr. Un noticed that Trump is sinking after he got the attention he needed.
Trump was simply played. Mr. Un never had any intention of giving up of his nuclear arsenal.
Now, the Iran deal is gone with Tehran earning the moral high ground and a great deal of sympathy even from American allies in Europe. N. Korea is in a much better diplomatic situation. What's in it for Trump? Nada!
18
I feel like I'm the only one that sees this for what it is... China controlling all sides. Despite appearances, this is playing out exactly how China wants, and I feel they've had complete control behind the scenes from the beginning. Trump and Kim know this, they are but puppets of China's March to global power.
16
No you’re not alone in that thought. I thought it straight from the start
1
Hmmm, this raises so many questions. Do we still have to save China’s ZTE jobs or do they return to being a bad actor against whom we apply sanctions? Is John Bolton anything more than a treaty wrecker? Is our Fabulist-in-Chief’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination in jeopardy? Will America survive the Trump Administration? Stay tuned!
14
ZTE is never only about Chinese Jobs. American firms like Qualcomm exports billions to ZTE, which is why they are paralyzed since Trump banned exporting US parts to ZTE. So trades are two way street, it is never about US kindness to China. Like many situations, our POTUS never thinks before he acts.... This WH has created so many unnecessary chaos around the world to allies and others alike. We have become so unrealizable, and national policies become bargining chips by such a bad poker player... We have only ourselves to blame to elect such a clown...
2
Is a mutual defense treaty in existence between China and North Korea? If not, the implementation of one might be beneficial in allowing Kim Jong-un to proceed toward denuclearization, albeit in a carefully phased manner, with the lifting of sanctions proceeding on a parallel track. Diplomacy is the only avenue to achieve a status of normalization, with peace, on the Korean Peninsula.
2
A mutual defense treaty is only useful if it is made public.
De facto, though, China will not want the North come under the influence of Western forces, so it will do all it can to undercut the success of any negotiations Kim might embark upon with the West.
1
Pompeo statement that N Korea should
denuclearize completely with the confirmation
by international experts and then US will
offer economic aid to boost its economy
would have rung the alarm bell. Capricious
nature of president Trump doesn't inspire
confidence in his words. It is also not a good
strategy to get tough with China on trade
at the same need its help to pressure N Korea.
President Trump should have done N Korea
first and take up trade negotiations later.
Issues on trade have complexity. China's
practices create problems but USA also many shortcomings. Its low savings and high
consumption and using trade as a tool
of foreign policy restricting exports to many
countries and the need to have dollar as
dominant currency contribute to deficit. China
and USA both need to address the issues.
1
I really wanted some Commemorative Coins. Seriously.
13
They'll be worth more now. Some will be leaked out.
10
If they are real gold or silver, they will be valuable after the Trump Collapse of the global economy.
2
Strange, "The confusion and finger-pointing show how complex....." but fingers pointing everywhere but not the recent HUGE joint military exercise the North had been pointedly upset about. With such a "disadvantage" in realizing where is the problem, I do not see the relationship to go anywhere.
4
It's amazing that anyone seriously thought Trump was doing anything but showboating. He was never anything but talk...no agenda, no plan and no purpose...just a chance to grab some headlines.
23
Meanwhile, China, North Korea and South Korea meet to deal with the American problem on the peninsula.
1
As long as this American administration is in power, China will continue to benefit. Anyone who's spent time as a dedicated China watcher through the decades will understand the inherent advantages China brings to any negotiating table, and one of those is patience. Chinese leadership--for all of its terrible faults, oppressive, inhumane treatment of dissent--has patience. Lots of it, and is able to look beyond the horizon when sizing up opponents, and quietly wait.
Exactly the trait totally lacking in American leadership right now.
31
I think the policy of our government is to let the elites control the state (for instance our executive financial decision maker graduated from Harvard), and let the lower class lead a mechanism life and not care about politics or even hear a word of the negative comments of foreign countries. But at the same time Chinese government encourages students to have a foreign diplom (for good students of course), which makes it possible for students from lower class to know more and contribute to the country. in a word, the oppression is only for lower class and not for the upper and people can be in upper class when they make their effort
Bill Clinton has been referred as the first black president because he was the first president to truly include blacks in his agenda.
Donald Trump has a chance to become both the first Russian president of the United States, as well as the first Chinese president of the United States, with his plans to "Make Russia and China Great Again."
19
US diplomacy is in a complete shambles.
10
BIG SURPRISE.
I wish I had put bets on this, I KNEW it wouldn’t happen.
5
You'll have plenty of chances! Don't get discouraged.
Well, this is certainly dissapointing. No Nobel Peace prize!
2
With the cancellation of the Summit, Trump will need to blame others. Bolton will be the easiest target with his "Libya Model" suggestion. Having met with Kim, Pompeo will be accused of wrongly conveying our position. And finally it will be Obama's fault.
What is curious is why the cancellation was announced today. With the bi-partisan Gang of 8 attending the "Spygate" briefing, Trump probably knew this ruse had probably run its course so he needed something else, like N Korea, to dominate the long weekend news cycle.
As a country we have been embarrassed by our President.
4
Embarrassed yet again... as we are every day under the “faux” leadership of Trump. Amateur hour... daily.
1
The relation between North Korea and China has changed since North Korea restarted its nuclear program without notifying China. If you had a neighbor like North Korea always acting like an angry adolescent, what would you do?
Encourage it:) The hostility is not towards China but the U.S.
N. Korea and China both have a common enemy.
Let’s ask the Mexican and Canadian governments
It might be advisable to limit the State Department in any diplomatic mission until we get a president that can keep more than one thought, one idea, in his head at a time. Cancellation of the summit is a total failure that damaged the US and our allies in Asia. I cannot imagine any way to salvage the situation at this point. We are in amateur hour.
9
Is anybody surprised that Trump tucked tail and ran?
I enjoy reading academic- historian political writers about FDR, JFK, LBJ and others and I do read the end notes. Wonder how contemporary writers could possibly write about Trump. What are they going to use as source/ end notes - his Tweets?
Without reading like a tabloid, how will historians' books narratives describe Trump?
Yes, many of us read the legitimate news stories every day about Trump's inanities, and we are caught up in the moments of his insanity.
But when he is finally gone, as will be some of us, how will history try to make sense of what we are now living through?
3
CRAWL - WALK - RUN
These are all reasonable expectations of the pace of these negotiations. The "deal" is more important to NK than the USA. President Trump has gone on record offering to sit down and discuss future relations, Kim has gone on record and promised the same, he then became bellicose and belligerent, both consistent with his past behavior. I believe these are just wrinkles in the fabric at the start of the dance.
1
If your neighbor invited you over for a meeting but brought out their armed guards and dogs to practice along the fence and they warn you about what happened to another neighbor (Libya), would you cross the fence and sit down? Of course, not.
China has what it wants, a delay in the Trump-Kim meeting!Mr.Xi can proceed with trade negotiations using North Korea as leverage.The ill fated meeting was always problematic because Mr.Kim only wanted to do the minimum to get restrictions lifted and Mr.Trump wanted capitulation and a chance to make a big splash on the international stage.Mr.Trump engaged in his usual "magical thinking".
5
From withdrawing from TPP to playing with fire on North Korea, Trump almost went out of his way to boost China's regional power and influence.
14
Rather than focus on Trump, my attention is drawn to China. Right or wrong and maybe neither, the Chinese don’t seem to care whether NK has nukes or not. How could this be?
nuclear proliferation is bad and eventually a weapon will be exploded somewhere. It is a logical certainty. China appears to have acknowledged this fact and decided it’s not worth their time to try to prevent.
China and America are playing different games altogether. NK may be irrelevant! It is slowly dawning on me that the real game is with China and that their goal of global hegemony is predicated on different tactics and assumptions. Beware
Huge victory for Kim from the get-go.
3
This article seems to assume that there IS a strategy.
I don’t think so.
This is just flailing. N Korea threatens to cancel, states it is not going to do what the US wants, so Trump, mastermind of geopolitics that he is, decides to cancel first. Ha! You can’t fire me, I quit!
Either that, or he just found out where Singapore is, and doesn’t want to be that far from his golf courses.
Bad POTUS. No Nobel.
8
You're dead right, Lisa, there is no strategy, nor any understanding of what one might look like with this two-headed adversary: NK and China. The latter keeping the former on a leash as a wonderful bargaining chip with the Drumfster. Personally I think Trump quite literally chickened out. He won't ask for help from the experts--they've all been frozen out or fired; and won't read anything, so he has to wing it with his short arms and tiny hands; and that gets expensive when there's no place to hide his ignorance or his insecurity. Strategy? As they say in the Midwest: not hardly.
1
No surprise that Trump cancels NKorea meeting.
And so China and NKorea are looking tight and Trump is left out, looking like a fool.
Trump: Making China look Great Again.
11
Don't forget the fact that by abandoning TPP, Donnie has ceded authority in the entire Asian hemisphere, an area where we have many natural allies, to the Chinese.
The chess vs. check analogies just don't work anymore. The truth is, Donnie is a fairly stupid, uninformed person making rookie mistakes because his ego is too big to admit that he needs to rely on people who are experts in the area.
1
It's dismaying to read many of these comments that make Trump out to be the bad guy in the US's negotiations with two of the worst regimes on the planet.
It's one thing to root for Hillary against Trump, but Xi and Kim? Trump hate makes people say dumb things.
2
Sort of like rooting for Putin over Obama? Or sending a letter to Iran saying making a deal with Obama wouldn’t be binding (turns out they actually were right about that one, since they pulled us out)?
I’m not rooting for China or North Korea over America, but I’m not about to give trump any credit for accomplishing nothing. His reasoning is basically that since North Korea exhibits hostility towards the US, which has been the status quo since the Korean War, he’s not going to follow through in his word to meet. This demonstrates that once again, his word means nothing. Unfortunately, this also further ruins the credibility of the United States.
I’m still optimistic for some sort of diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean front. Only now, America won’t have a seat at the table and China will be directing negotiations.
TPP, NAFTA, Paris Climate Agreement, Korea, Iran. That’s a lot of agreements to back away from after one year in office. Particularly when Mr. Art-of-the-Deal realizes we now have no bargaining power for ANY of them.
Are we sick of winning yet?
25
No one is cheering for North Korea. We expect the worse from Trump and he always delivers. That's not our fault, it's his. I think we deserve to say "I told you so."
We won. America has exceeded all expectations and resurrected geopolitical alliances which no one could have imagined. Awesome job with the Republic. Something about the song ‘All Along The Watchtower’.
N Korea is now part of China’s One Road. If we want peace with N Korea we need to allow Disney executives to negotiate. A Disney theme park in Pyongyang would bring huge profits to the US corporation, bring Asian tourists in and give jobs to locals. We get N Koreans hooked on cheese burgers, sports stuff and Kpop. Cur Trump Inc out of the deal entirely.
2
South Korea could still make a deal with Kim, and invite the Americans to leave. They have options.
North Korea could still pursue a deal with the South. They have options.
China could now end serious sanctions against North Korea, because the US blew off the use of them. The Russians too. They have options.
The one left with no options here is the US.
In many ways, realistic US options ended when the Iran deal was breached by the US, because it was inconsistent with making a new deal. It was also the intervention of the same advisers, like Bolton, who has bragged about ruining the last efforts with the North.
We await reactions from all the other players, the US having nothing to do now but take whatever they choose.
34
What China wants on the Korean peninsula is constantly misrepresented. What does China want? They want the removal or serious reduction of US military forces on their border. How can that be achieved? It's achieved through a reduction in tensions on the peninsula. This allows the South Koreans' demonstrated desire to put an end to the large US military presence in their country to be acted upon given the reduced risk from North Korea. In that kind of environment Moon - whose status has been enhanced by his statesmenship in getting things this far regardless of what happens - can achieve one of the goals his supporters hold dear - reducing the US military presence and beginning the happy process of reuniting the two Koreas. This is a best case scenario for the Chinese. They can work with South Korea to rebuild the North make good money all while reducing the risk of a flood of refugees and/or some nuclear accident coming from an unsustainable NK regime. On top of that a united Korea will be far less beholding to the US and natural economics and cultural affinity would soon draw South Korea into China's orbit. The two countries current and growing trade relationship and warming relationships already presages this. Kim also wins in this scenario as he will be the leader along with Moon to unite the Koreas. He sees the writing on the wall. He is managing the end of the regime. Who loses in this scenario? The US military industrial complex. Guess who is working to upend the deal?
21
Most Americans don't even know that U.S. troops reached the Chinese border during the Korean War.
And then there is Japan, America's staunch post-WWII ally, a country which committed genocide in China on a massive scale, which has never taken responsibility, and whic is currently rearming.
No one in the world should trust the United States. It is sad to say it. But Xi, an absolute dictator, actually looks like a reasonable statesman compared to Donald Trump.
10
If you really want to understand the whys and how America reaped so much of what it has sown ...read up on the American Air Bombing campaign on North Korea conducted from 1951-53 where it dropped more bombs than it did on Germany and Japan combined and caused so much devastation, that not a single building was left intact and after bombing two dams and flooding its agricultural heartland, finally ran out of any more targets to bomb.
America's own estimates are that they killed between 20-30% of the entire North Korean population.
This blatant inhumanity ...that massacre was also the direct catalyst for China deciding to get the Atom Bomb and later North Korea, so that it never would find itself so vulnerable and subject to such indiscriminate wanton death and destruction at the whim of a country with complete impunity...as was done by them, by America.
"Much will depend on how North Korea reacts to Mr. Trump’s move."
How do we know that Kim Jong Un was not the one who canceled this summit? Kim probably had second thoughts after threatening remarks from our Vice President about the "Libyan model". Kim is not suicidal. I would be surprised if he was not the one to cancel this summit before Donald Trump, even yesterday Donald was dreaming about the " Nobel Peace Prize. Much will depend on how Trump is going to move ahead now after Kim's withdrawal from the summit.
I have complete confidence in the abilities of Cadet Bone Spurs and his chicken hawk Republican military-industrial complex to back us into a destabilizing $1 trillion war on a credit card with Iran or North Korea to firm up Gas Oil Profits so GOP donors can be handsomely rewarded with profits and premature deaths of American soldiers.
"Free-Dumb !"
The great cascading collapse of the American IQ, values and reason continues unabated with our Interloper-In-Chief.
Vote for sanity in record numbers on November 6 2018.
47
Who will the Dems trot out in 2018? Maxine Waters? Chuck? Nancy? Hilary, round 2? Or maybe Oprah? I think you might want to choose another famous ancient Greek screen name, Sophocles, because the narrative that is currently playing out is a self-induced democratic tragedy, rife with treasonous actors loyal to a party and not a country, hell-bent on undoing what was fairly done at the continual cost of the citizens of the United States.
Consideration of China by Trump in regards to Korea would require triangulation, and that just makes his head hurt. He clearly cannot even do one-on-one without threatening Kim with Gaddafi's fate. The self proclaimed 'best negotiator ever' doesn't negotiate, he only bullies, and it doesn't work well in the real world.
40
I love this dude Kim as the perfect spoiler to Trump. His ego is only slightly smaller than Trumps. My bomb is radioactive just like yours. China is not worried about Korea, South or North, and executes their plans as always because everything is written in stone. Trump is out-on-a-limb following a proven nutcase, the newly minted Sec. of State. Between the two, this mission is doomed to the dusty shelf of history. It is patently naïve to think that China wants to disarm North Korea.
21
The Chinese , with centuries of experience on one hand and DJT not willing to listen to any credible/experienced diplomats in the U.S. are not a good match for us.
Ignorant Libya comments by Bolton only show the "opposition" our lack of negotiating capabilities and knowledge of even recent history.
China, SK and NK now know how to manipulate the president. Stroke his ego and he'll follow you anywhere. Once he realizes that he has been duped he will declare victory or go into another tweet rage.
We have his backers and Congress to blame for the failure of future contacts.
31
China is playing Chess. Trump is playing Tic Tac Toe, and NOT well.
Shocking.qqq
56
And your evidence for this is....Trump Derangement Syndrome?
It has been a mistake from the start to tie trade talks with Beijing to talks about national security. How the world's greatest negotiator wriggles free from this should be fun to watch.
If Trump could shut his mouth and his Twitter account while his very experienced advisors do their jobs, we'd all be better off. They may or may not be able to move the US's problems with Beijing in a positive direction, but they'll have a much better chance at a good outcome if he pipes down.
14
I think Kim has been taking some chill pills for the last two or three months. Even when NK complains or reacts to a US statement, it's not Kim but some underling that complains. Kim is all smiles.
6
As to the June 12 meeting between Trump and Un in Singapore, it goes like the old riddle, "A traveler asks for directions from two men at a fork in the road..." only in this case both are liars.
7
From the Economist:
America’s president receives a humiliating lesson in diplomacy
Now that the June summit in Singapore is off, snatching the Nobel Peace Prize from Trump's grasp, we will be back to "button" talk.
Warmonger Bolton will be temporarily useful in rekindling the "fire and fury" talk but his long term prospects as NSA are dim.
The incredibly unqualified Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was a partner in an unsuccessful business in Kansas before he rode Koch money and anti-immigrant hate speech into the US House, remains convinced of his own extraordinary deal making skills. His pronouncements about Iran already suggest a mind detached from reality, especially about a lack of allies in his anticipated "Iran negotiations".
China will continue to play the NK situation quietly, while keeping Trump busy with minor concessions on trade that play well with Trump's supporters.
48