Sunday 27 May 2018

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are made for each other

The Korean story is getting crazier by the day. First it's on, the next it's cancelled and then it may be on after all. The June 12th summit of course. I would say the odds are 4 to 3 the Trump/Kim summit WILL take place on June 12th, unless someone idiotic in Washington says something like: "If Kim doesn't give up his nukes on day one we will probably use the Iraq 2003 model". The best thing for everyone now will be total diplomatic silence. If it's on, it's on and nothing more need be said. If there are pre-conditions let them be sorted out quietly without any public statements, and that includes no tweets from Trump. Just for once, forget that social media exists. I doubt this will happen because Trump and John Bolton and others find it impossible to keep their mouths closed. But for the sake of what could still be a Big Event, they need to restrain themselves and leave all the work to the diplomats and spooks who are currently talking to North Korea. Judging by the very limited television reports that came out of the supposed demolition of the North Korean nuclear test site, this is a country which is still locked in a sort of Kafkaesqe universe where officials dressed in Maoist boilersuits have absolutely no clue about how the rest of the world works. Their treatment of the visiting reporters was totally bizarre. They showered the reporters with eight-course banquets but then took fright when the television crews dared to take pictures of a beach or a half-built hotel or....well anything. This is truly old school Communism. They imagine all outsiders are aliens. They simply cannot understand the value of good publicity. They are so scared that a picture of a deserted beach will provoke the wrath of their leader that their only response is to order the cameras to be switched off and any tapes to be destroyed. These are weird people, and their leader is the weirdest of the lot. So I'm thinking Trump and Kim are going to get on like a half-built hotel on fire. Trump after all denounced reports in the New York Times about the North Korea situation and claimed everything was totally false. Made up. Fake news. But the report was based on a briefing by a White House official who had been delegated - by the White House - to speak to the press. This is pure North Korea. Trump is going to feel at home when he meets Kim. They are going to swap stories about how tough it is to be a leader like two paranoid old queens. And they will probably come out with some sort of half-stage, long-term deal that sounds pretty good but actually will let Kim off the hook but still make Trump look resaonably happy. It's all crazy crazy crazy.

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