Pompeo has the right credentials for a North Korea deal

I have been highly sceptical in the past about the prospect of any real meaningful deal between the US and North Korea. I couldn't see Kim Jong-un ever giving up his nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. I still don't. But I believe there's a hint of a potential breakthrough. Sending the director of the CIA, one of the most powerful and influential intelligence services in the world, to Pyongyang to meet the North Korean leader was a smart move, whoever it happens to be. The director of the CIA has always had a globe-trotting role. He doesn't just sit in his office at Langley and brief the president. He's a secret envoy for the most secret goings-on. That has always been the case. But the current (not for long) director of the CIA is Mike Pompeo and he has been nominated by Trump to the next secretary of state. So Pompeo had a lot of authority sitting on his shoulders when he met with Kim over the Easter weekend. If Rex Tillerson had still been secretary of state and was the man chosen for the first meeting with Kim, I somehow doubt the North Korean leader would have been so impressed with his American visitor. Tillerson has no intelligence background and the briefest of diplomatic experience. But the heavy-duty CIA boss arriving at his palatial home in the North Korean capital. Now that would have impressed Kim I think. Kim knows that Pompeo knows everything there is to know about him. AND he's about to become secretary of state. So Pompeo will play a crucial role in the forging of new relations with Pyongyang. Provided, of course, his nomination is confirmed. The Democrats in the Senate are all apparently determined to oppose his appointment, and it will only take a few Republicans to support them, and then suddenly Trump is in trouble. It's absolutely obvious that the only reason the White House leaked to the Washington Post that Pompeo had been on a "secret" (ho ho ho) trip to see Kim was to encourage the naughty Senate to play ball and confirm Pompeo's appointment to the State Department. I believe the ruse will work. Pompeo and Kim got on very well - or so Trump claimed in a tweet - and no senator surely is going to be so unpatriotic as to vote against Pompeo's new appointment at a time when he could help broker one of the biggest diplomatic coups in a generation. But it's important not to be carried away. Kim Jong-un is surprisingly astute for someone who hardly ever leaves his inner sanctum - apart from his brief train ride to Beijing recently. He is going to demand all kinds of things in return for removing even one of his nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and his aim is obviously to see the back of all US troops stationed in South Korea and to reunite with the South. The first part is NOT going to happen, not for many year anyway. But the Pompeo/Kim meeting is the first step. There is presumably now a wish list on the table, on both sides, and negotiations can begin. If Kim "likes" Pompeo, that's probably a good sign. So, members of the Senate, whatever your political persuasion, do your job and let Pompeo do his as America's next secretary of state.