The problem with Trump’s North Korea gamble

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By now, it’s clear: President Trump lost his bet on North Korea. Kim Jong Un is not close to giving up his weapons and isn’t likely to do so in the future. And if anyone was still waiting for proof of that disheartening reality, it came in the from of satellite imagery revealing that North Korea was rebuilding a launch site that it had previously partially dismantled — and it might have been doing so before Kim’s meeting with Trump in Hanoi.

North Korea has played this game before, and it’s always ended the same way: a broken deal, the Kim family keeping their grip on power and nuclear ambitions, and Washington throwing up its hands in frustration.

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