NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SOUTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “There is literally nothing in the history of the past three decades to suggest that the diplomatic dance President Donald Trump begins with North Korea on Tuesday [6-12-18] will succeed—no hard evidence Pyongyang will give up its nuclear-weapons program, no record of North Korea’s honoring international agreements, no sign it would allow economic pressure to get in the way of military priorities. So, as Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sit down for a historic summit, the question is: Why go ahead with this process at all? Why give Mr. Kim upfront a big prize—the international legitimacy bestowed by a meeting with the American president—when there is so little reason for optimism? The answer, say South Korean officials who have studied Mr. Kim, lies in a speech he gave on April 20 to his Workers Party’s Central Committee. Study the words closely, they say, and the young North Korean leader lays out the rationale for a profound strategic shift, away from years of obsession with nuclear development and toward a plan to escape all-encompassing economic backwardness. A huge dose of skepticism is needed here. Still, it is important to look back closely at that April statement, for it may offer the best explanation of why U.S. and South Korean officials have decided the effort of engagement is worth the risks inherent in it.”
-Gerald F. Seib,”Singapore Summit Puts Kim Jong Un’s Words to the Test,” The Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2018 9:24 am