I don’t think Trump needs good posture when he has the US executive pen. The President of the US comes to the table with a full house every time. There is no need for poker face.
Anyway, you guys know that most of the terms of this meeting were pre negotiated, right? They would not have agreed to fly all the way to Singapore without a mutually acceptable framework for agreement.
Most likely, it will be some guidelines for future action, that will allow both sides to claim diplomatic success, but will allow Kim some room to weasel around. Furthermore, it’s the actual diplomatic staff of each country who will have drafted the agreement, not Trump, who is more of a “big picture” thinker.
Well, early 30s Kim just out-negotiated the self-proclaimed best negotiator ever.
Kim walks away with two big wins now—the sanctions are now shattered I assume, and his rep across Asia has skyrocketed. Trump on the other hand maybe gets something, sometime later, hehe. SK Moon (Kim’s buddy) says this will take years, and by that time Trump is gone, or forgets all about it.
Also supporting the story of this being a Kim win—Trump dialed down expectations pre-arrival from “ending the war, reunification, and denuclearize” to “basically a meet and greet” and then dialed down again after landing by cutting his visit short. So he knew Kim already beat him before his plane landed!
From the live coverage, it was a lot of Trump and Kim making generic statements, then the other one saying yes and nodding. It was pretty obvious that there was already some sort of expectation for the summit. Furthermore, the “action item” is future meetings regarding details, not involving either leader in person but through their aides, which is consistent with what we had addressed earlier.
It’s one thing to meet with him to ease tensions, but I don’t really get the over the top flattery. I’ve been giving DJT the benefit of the doubt when it comes to NK, but I’m not really sure what he’s trying to accomplish. I mean what’s with all of the hoopla if they’re not even going to agree to anything even slightly meaningful?
One thing was accomplished yesterday that shouldn’t be understated. NK promised to return all KIA/MIA US soldiers from the Korean War. Families have been asking for this for decades. May not mean a whole lot to most people but definitely does to those that lost a loved one over there.
Yup. And this is what Xie has been playing publicly “aren’t you being a bit unrealistic?” (in Asia reads as: America is totally delusional and desperate, just look everyone!). Over and over again Xie builds the view across Asia (and beyond) that CN are the responsible leaders, and that the US is breaking down.
Trump’s “plan” doesn’t make any sense. But the reason Trump is so desperate to “accomplish something,” despite nothing concrete from Kim, is because of bait Kim extended this year that he might be interested in modernizing. The US can’t figure out if that is real or not, but it’s bait they can’t pass up!
It follows the pattern of Kim-family playing both sides brilliantly, or perhaps it’s a ploy from CN using the NK proxy to deal with the increased US aggression on the peninsula. Either way Trump is way out of his league. He’s just engaged in short-termism for midterms and re-election, while Asia continues to play the long-game.
Side point: note “the revolution” got suckered right back into globalism, warmongering, interventionism, and nation-building abroad. That didn’t take long!
Funnily, what I heard is that during the prior Kim-Moon meeting Kim actually floated the idea of putting Trump hotels in NK. This is would be hilarious in so many ways…
Still don’t get what lies behind their friendship. I mean Rodman and JMK. I read somewhere that they met once Rodman came to NK for a basketball match and they become friends. I remember him playing in Chicago Bulls. As of that time, he was known from his eccentric behavior. Not sure, how he is perceived now in the US and what value he can add to the relationship from Kim’s perspective, apart from a bit of media exposure.
Rodman is a lunatic that no one really takes seriously. Other than being the best rebounder in the history of the NBA, he’s known for crossdressing, using tons of drugs, multiple stints in rehab. erratic behavior, and banging hot women and possibly men.
Because he’s crazy, he decided to go to NK and strike a friendship with someone just as crazy (though with nuclear capabilities). Around this same time he was also friends with Trump (having appeared on Trump’s TV show). That makes him one of the very few people, up until these past few months, that had both been in contact with NK and Trump. Pretty weird.
Rodman believes this summit wouldn’t have happened if not for him…and I kind of believe it, actually. Trump, of course, denies Rodman did anything productive and demands all the credit go to himself.
Yup apparently Rodman had no idea what NK was all about and basically thought all of Asia was like that which is why he didn’t understand why there was beef with the US. Can’t fault Rodman for falling for their propaganda, but the pres totally kissing his ass and taking photo ops in front of both flags on equal footing is just bizarre and scary.
Rodman wore a potcoin shirt on his trip because apparently this cannabis cryptocurrency biz sponsored his peace mission. That just wraps up the overall freakshow in Singapore.
I don’t follow American pop culture much, but this seems accurate! I do give him credit though for walking right thru the American “dehumanization of enemies” tactic though (apparently blissfully unaware). Kim is just another human, I’d have a beer with him too!
There’s no real basis for that American perception though (comes from fakenews). Real data points > Kim is quite sane. If the family were not, they couldn’t have outmaneuvered America for 50yrs.
