Donald Trump’s assurances about his North Korea summit are hard to swallow given his history of lying, exaggeration. (Photo: Getty)(Photo: Getty)
Donald Trump declared victory after his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, but has little to show for the meeting, so far, except his own bombastic claims. A history of lying and exaggeration may be his worst enemy as he tries to sell the deal to the American public.
Kim’s own history of duplicity in negotiations with the United States is also raising eyebrows about the meeting. The regime reached an agreement with South Korea in 1992 to denuclearize the region.
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
The two Koreas agreed “not to test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy, or use nuclear weapons; to use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes; and not to possess facilities for nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment.”
North Korea prompted ignored it. But you wouldn’t know that from Trump’s bluster.
“Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!” Trump tweeted.
Except North Korea still has its missile and nuclear weapons. The U.S. goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula through a treaty and verifiable oversight is still off in the foggy distance.
Also still unanswered is what Kim will demand from the United States. Some fear Trump will offer to draw down U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a move critics say will destabilize Asia, bolster China and cause serious alarm in Japan.
The president has already agreed to halt joint-training exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces, leaving U.S. troops vulnerable, according to critics.
Trump also not only offered relief from economic sanctions, but he also raised the prospect of substantial outside aid and investment for the hermit kingdom.
Unmentioned were North Korea’s massive human rights violations, it’s extensive network of gulags housing political prisoners and its continuing cyber attacks, one of which decimated Sony Pictures two years ago.
Yet, all the nation is getting, so far, is Trump’s braggadocio, and that’s not encouraging. Over 497 days as president, Trump has made 3,251 false or misleading claims, according to a tally by The Washington Post.
Trump’s sugar-coated descriptions of the grisly dictator are particularly unnerving.
Employing his usual strategy against the media, Trump is roundly attacking news outlets that accurately point out the lack of specific accomplishments from the summit and Kim’s history of duplicity.
“So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN,” he Tweeted today (June 13). “They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”
But even Fox News anchor Shep Smith called the summit “nothing short of an unjustified capitulation to an autocratic regime, without receiving any meaningful concessions.”
“America demanded complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization — there’s no guarantee of that, no words to that effect,” Smith said of the statement signed by Kim and Trump. “And we may not know for years whether we’re actually now on that road or left in the potholes of paths past.”
“But Kim Jong-un? He wanted the photos, the seat at the table. He wanted the legitimacy that came with the event, the handshake with America’s president. And he wanted those military exercises with the Americans and the South Koreans that happen every year to stop. Kim Jong-un got it all, for actually doing nothing,” he added.