Kim and Putin in Vladivostok

There is nothing reassuring about Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin meeting for a summit in Vladivostok. Kim, roughly the same height as his Russian host but consideraby broader in the beam, is a clever chap, playing Donald Trump against Putin. A North Korean version of the opening Phillidor Swamp move in chess in which Black (Kim) sucks White (Trump) into a sticky mess that leads to checkmate. Kim chatting amiably to Putin and promising a closer relationship must have made Trump grit his teeth. Trump thought he was in the driving seat but no, there is his old mate Vlad whipping the carpet from under his feet. It's a tricky business, global politics, but Kim seems to handle it all pretty well. If he's not kowtowing to Xi Zinping he's hopping about in his armoured train plotting his next chess move. Putin was an obvious choice because of Trump's troubles with the hohoho Moscow collusion stuff and the last summit which was pretty disastrous. Hanoi will go down in history as the place where deals are never done. Since the Trump walk-out in Hanoi, Kim has basically won all the cards. He has ordered his nuclear boys to look snappy about rebuilding dismantled facilities, and fired off a fairly meaningless "new" tactical weapon to make the world tremble, although that didn't work very well because the new Pentagon chief spokesman somewhat bizarrely announced that the US military commands involved in monitoring threats to the US were carrying on as normal, with breakfast, lunch and tea all held at the usual time. Well he didn't say the last bit but he was rather ineptly trying to get across the message that the North Korean tactical weapon/missile hadn't made the earth move as far as the Pentagon was concerned. Then there was the charming announcement from Pyongyang that Mike Pompeo, the Kim-like shaped secretary of state, should be sacked as the chief US negotiator with North Korea because they don't like his gruff approach. They want someone sweet and smiling who will do the North Koreans' bidding. Trump should ignore that one. The trouble is if Pompeo stays as chief negotiator, Kim might refuse to see him or Trump and will just rely on his new best friend Vladimir Putin. I don't know whether Putin plays or understands the complexities of chess but he sure as hell knows when to make smart moves on the world stage. It's probably time Trump wrote another one of those "I love you" letters to Kim.