Many of President Trump’s critics have little to no confidence that he can get anything substantial accomplished in the still-to-be-scheduled meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump, who oftentimes is very optimistic about his ability to bring people together to the negotiating table, was more-or-less a realist about his chances of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize, saying on Wednesday, “I hope to have a very successful meeting. If we don’t think it’s going to be successful, we won’t have it.”
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who serves as the chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee, told the Washington Examiner editorial board on Wednesday that he agrees. “I’ve said that if we don’t think we can achieve denuclearization, this meeting shouldn’t happen.”
“If we think this is going to be another rope-a-dope by Kim Jong Un, cancel the meeting,” Gardner added, saying that he conveyed his sentiments to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the Department of Defense, and Senate Republican leadership.
He went on to say that there is a part of him that worries that the meeting will take place and nothing is accomplished that serves U.S. interests.
“My concern is this, what happens when we have this meeting and there’s no progress towards denuclearization?” Gardner said. “If we don’t get something that is real – a commitment and time frame, whatever it is – the president comes back to the United States, it’s blown up in the media, then what’s next? Is there more diplomacy? Because that didn’t seem to work. So, there’s a lot at stake in this meeting.”
Gardner continued to say that if the current progress made on North Korea dissolves, the United States needs to have an alternate plan, one of which involves President Trump getting tougher on a country that’s been friendlier to the North Koreans than anyone else, China.
“That means we start sanctioning [China],” Gardner explained. “We have 5,000 some odd [Chinese] businesses that are doing business with North Korea right now. Sanction every single one of them. Cut off oil. Why are they hesitant to completely cut them off?”
He added, “Name the individuals, start interdicting Chinese ships that are going over [to North Korea]. Let’s raise the price of Chinese use of North Korean slave labor.”
Gardner explained that isolating China is key to getting the North Koreans to behave, but he’s not supportive of President Trump using tariffs as a strategy to reach that end.
“It raises prices on the very people that we’re trying to help,” Gardner said. “What I think we ought to do is to get European nations, Southeastern Asian nations together to recognize what is rightfully misbehavior by China on trade and build a coalition around that and maybe you could use TPP or other actions to isolate China enough to influence their behavior. There should be some reciprocal action in the United States against Chinese entities that are carrying this out.”
