July 9, 2019
Jeffrey Lewis
The following is an excerpt of an article published in The Washington Post.
When President Trump spent a few moments north of the demarcation line between North Korea and South Korea last month, he became the first U.S. president to visit North Korea. But that may wind up being a far less historic event than something else that appears to have happened in the truce village at Panmunjom: The United States accepted North Korea as a nuclear power.
No, the government did not do so officially, and Trump administration officials, if asked, would deny it. But it is hard to escape the sense that Trump has learned to stop worrying and love North Korea’s bomb.
After all, when Trump and North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un emerged from their 50-minute meeting at the demilitarized zone, the official remarks afterward made no reference to the nuclear issue. Not one. Nor did the readout of the meeting released by the North Koreans. While the U.S. side declined to provide its own readout, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo summarized the discussion by saying “Chairman Kim really wants to get something done” and then declining to elaborate on what that something might entail.
Continue reading at The Washington Post.
