In his State of the Union address, President Trump announced the details of his second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. To applause, he explained, “Chairman Kim and I will meet again on Feb. 27 and 28 in Vietnam.”
That meeting comes after months of talks since the two leaders first met in Singapore last summer. The talks, despite repeated efforts from the United States, have largely stalled. Although North Korea has made symbolic gestures of good faith, Kim’s regime has failed to take serious steps to dismantle the country’s nuclear program. Instead, satellite images have revealed that North Korea has looked to conceal its weapons and has failed to acknowledge several nuclear sites.
When Trump meets with Kim at the end of February, he will have a great deal on his plate.
A second meeting without serious progress on denuclearization is little more than an unearned reward for a ruthless dictator and a country with a clear history of sidestepping U.S. negotiations. But if it must happen, then Trump must make it worth while.
In part that means emerging from the meeting with more than just another vague agreement and, instead, securing, a clear and binding commitment that will limiting the threat currently posed by North Korea.
But that also means that Trump must not have unrealistic expectations. North Korea is unlikely to, even under the best circumstances, simply hand over all of its nuclear weapons and destroy its facilities. It is even less likely to cut its capacity to wage biological and cyber war — both which threaten U.S. interests.
Given that reality, Trump must see any agreement as a first step, and one that sets the stage for further negotiations with the goal of mitigating, even piece by piece, the very real danger posed by North Korea.
He must go into that meeting realizing that he does not need a “complete and total” victory on North Korean denuclearization to claim a foreign policy win on his “bold, new diplomacy” and “historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula.” Negotiations are less about a flashy agreement than a long slog of hard work and ongoing talks, deal-making and dispute resolution.
