A week after North Korea pulled out of talks with South Korea, President Trump canceled his summit with the North Koreans, which was scheduled to be held in Singapore on June 12. The president claimed in an open letter to Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, that he made the decision because of Kim’s “tremendous anger and open hostility.” Once again, it seems the president has fallen short of his and his aides’ claims of him being the best negotiator in the world. The reason for cancellation may not just be North Korea’s harsh words but the looming reality that the U.S. won’t fully disarm North Korea because North Korea fears retaliation.
And for our all-or-nothing president, that just won’t do.
North Korea’s harsh words that supposedly made Trump cancel the summit were directed at Vice President Mike Pence. In an interview with Fox News on May 23, Pence seemed to threaten North Korea: “You know, as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal.” In the Libyan model, former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi dismantled his nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and was brutally murdered by Western-backed rebels eight years later.
It is no secret that one of the main reasons for Kim’s beloved nuclear program, at large costs like sanctions and hostility, is that he does not want to end up like Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein of Iraq, neither of whom had nuclear weapons and ended up dead. Kim sees his nuclear weapons as the only thing that safeguards him from the west, and Pence’s words were deliberately inflammatory.
Either Pence meant to sabotage the diplomatic talks, or it was just a dumb move. It comes as no surprise that a North Korean high-ranking official, the vice-minister of the Foreign Ministry, called Pence a “political dummy” and called his remarks “ignorant and stupid.”
Most administrations have their problems, but the current presidential administration has a particularly problematic one: the president and his zero-sum view of the world and lack of diplomacy in particular. Pence’s thoughts on the interview are a reflection of Trump and his aides’ approach to foreign policy and negotiation: all or nothing.
Last week, John Bolton said the U.S. would seek complete and total nuclear disarmament, which led to threats from North Korea to cancel the summit. It should have been clear from the very beginning to Trump and his aides that North Korea would not be open to complete nuclear disarmament—not after nearly 70 years of hostility, and definitely not for so little in exchange.
Trump was instead preoccupied with getting credit for bringing North Korea to the table—something that we now know will not be happening anytime soon—and grandiose dreams of getting a Nobel prize. Perhaps, in the end, the idea of the summit was self-serving, because Trump’s approval rating has gone up significantly due to the media’s reckless coverage of the summit, despite experts warning from the very beginning that there was a good chance that the summit won’t be successful.
Trump may shift the blame for the summit’s cancellation to the North Koreans. Whatever happens next, one outcome of this kerfuffle is certain: We may not see denuclearization anytime soon, but because of the freshly bruised egos on both sides, relations between the U.S. and North Korea will escalate going forward.
Deshani Gunathilake (@dd_gunners) is a freelance writer and America’s Future Foundation Writing Fellowship alumna. She lives and works in Washington, D.C.
