Kim Jong Un really took us for a ride there, didn’t he?
On Tuesday, a North Korean regime official declared that the communist country would not agree to “unilateral nuclear abandonment,” raising doubts about the likelihood of the U.S.-North Korea summit taking place in Singapore in June.
“It is a ridiculous comedy to see that the Trump administration, claiming to take a different road from the previous administrations, still clings to the outdated policy on the DPRK — a policy pursued by previous administrations at the same time when the DPRK was at the stage of nuclear development,” Kim Kye Gwan, a senior diplomat, said in a Wednesday statement released by state-run media.
Kim continued. “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.”
The statement comes less than a week after the Trump administration secured the release of three American prisoners in North Korea. It also comes after North Korea issued an initial threat to cancel the talks after learning that the U.S. and South Korea were continuing to engage in joint military exercises.
In the last year, Trump has both been singing Kim’s praises, calling him “honorable,” and maligning him in the next breath (or tweet for that matter), dubbing him “Little Rocket Man.”
Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017
Of course, this is the furthest any president has gotten so far with respect to engaging North Korea and getting them to denuclearize. And it might all be for naught.
The lesson that needs to be learned here is to never trust a dictator at their word. Why would a young dictator who oversees the oppression of millions of his own people give up his country’s nuclear capabilities out of the goodness of his heart? Of course they wouldn’t find value in the scheduled summit with the U.S., it completely undermines Kim’s power.
The likelihood that this will result in escalated tensions via a Trump Twitter storm has yet to be seen. However, make no mistake: if North Korea cancels, it’s a huge step backwards for the U.S. and the Trump administration.
