NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Time is not on President Donald Trump’s side if he still hopes to put a stop to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions after the collapse of his summit with Kim Jong Un. Negotiators seeking to lay new groundwork for a potential agreement will probably have to proceed in a far more plodding fashion than the breakneck pace of the diplomatic process that relied so heavily on Trump and Kim’s personal involvement over the past year, former diplomats and veterans of North Korea policy said Thursday [2-28-19]. And Trump’s rising domestic demands, as he gears up for reelection with middling approval ratings under the cloud of multiple investigations, mean his capacity to make a breakthrough where his predecessors failed could steadily erode.”
–Bryan Bender, “Trump’s ticking clock on North Korea,” Politico, February 28, 2019 7:15 pm