This weeks summit between North Korea's President Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump was not the usual summit of past American Presidents nd foreign leaders where decisions were actually made on a number of issues. This summit was more of a meeting and a short one at that and ended with a joint statement that both sides would meet in the future to decide on several issues made public in the statement.
President Trump did tell Kim Jong that the U.S. and South Korea would no longer participate in joint military exercises that North Korea and China both opposed for many years as being provocative. It was one subject both North and South Korea had talked about in their earlier meetings. The other subject both Korea's leaders talked about was the removal of all U.S. troops now stationed in South Korea.
It was a strange summit to begin with. Trump cancelled it and when he did so Kim's reply was low key and very simple. NORTH KOREA WOULD BE READY TO MEET WHEN THE U.S. WAS READY. The ball was back in Trump's court and just a day or two later said the summit was back on and in the same place, date and time.
And it even became more strange when Trump announced after the summit that N.Korea was no longer a threat to the U.S. even though no agreements were made except to keep talking. That statement by Trump speaks volumes because he knew before the summit what PolitiDose has long ago said, that N. Korea was not a threat to launch an attack against the U.S. and the reasons why.
According to all reports, the summit lasted five and half hours. A very short time as summits of the past. It was also reported that Trump wanted his team to start the summit before the agreed time because both leaders arrived early and Trump was bored.
Kim Jong was able to put himself on the same stage as an American President because his country possessed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States and had the capability to weaponize the ICBM with a nuclear warhead according to reports. North Korea not only tested several ICBMs on Trump's watch, but also tested a hydrogen bomb on Trump's watch. Of course people should remember Trump pledged it would not happen on his watch.
The failure of the world's nuclear powers to develop a workable plan to control the spread of WMD is the greatest threat to survival and their attitude of "we can have our WMD, but other can not" has been a disaster.
The one thing the U.S. has lost control of in all of this concerning North Korea is the fact that both North and South Korea's leaders are coming together and are setting the agenda. The summit was only a few days ago, but there is little to remember since the decision making was given to the future.
Its as if the summit never even took place.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
