May 15, 2018

NOBEL! NOBEL! NOB...wait, what???

The North’s official KCNA news agency said earlier on Wednesday Pyongyang had called off high-level talks with Seoul in the first sign of trouble in what had been warming ties.

Citing first vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan, KCNA later said the fate of the U.S.-North Korea summit, as well as bilateral relations, “would be clear” if Washington spoke of a “Libya-style” denuclearization for the North.

“If the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U.S. summit,” Kim Kye Gwan said, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Hate to break it to you, Donnie, but you just got trumped by Kim Jong Un.

The issue of denuclearization was always on the table, and Kim knew it from the beginning. This was simply nothing more than "Little Rocket Man" ripping the rug out from under Trump to show him who is really in charge.

For all the talk that the GOP and Trump were happy to wallow in that the Iran deal was terrible, the reality is that the agreement was borne of years and years of careful discussions and delicate negotiations, supported by intelligence gathering, diplomacy, and a strong set of foreign policy objectives.

Contrast that with John Bolton's admission that Trump's plan was basically to wing it.

This kind of diplomacy cannot be done impulsively or without eyes wide open to all the possible implications long term. It's also very helpful to have some historical background as well, as this is not the first time that Kim has sounded as if he's interested in negotiating some sort of peace agreement only to come up with some picayune detail to blow it all up. That's why these agreements take years to get to. But that's not within the capabilities of the Trump administration.

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