President Donald Trump is full of surprises — major surprises, such as getting elected in the first place. Can he now deliver the biggest surprise of all by getting North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal, something that just might save the world from annihilation?
Probably not, many observers say. They agree it would be hallelujah time if he pulled something like that off in a summit meeting with Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the socialist state. But Kim and his family have spent murderous decades accumulating this power, it is noted, and the point now is not to say goodbye to all of that but to make a more prominent and bullying, threatening North Korea a rich North Korea.
True, Kim stopped nuclear testing. He also said there was no need — suggesting, among other things, that he now has the capability to take out American cities. It is also true that he wants to negotiate the technical end of the war with South Korea, the United States and others. But the main point here may be to get America’s 28,000 troops off the peninsula.
The Trump-era sanctions, it is said, have taken a toll, but not to the point of famine, especially since international cheaters have been in ample supply. China could economically crush this neighbor on its border but is not particularly excited about torrents of refugees or displacement of the regime by one less to its liking. A U.S. attack has to seem unlikely, especially with questions of retaliatory might.
