Politico | Donald Trump bet on Kim Jong-un. Now he’s disappeared
- With North Korea’s leader missing, US president’s personal diplomacy now seems even more fruitless
- After three face-to-face meetings, Trump’s investment in relationship could be for naught if Kim is really gravely ill or dead
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nahal Toosi on politico.com on April 27, 2020.
North Korea’s dictator has vanished from sight, and in doing so, he has exposed a potentially major weakness of US President Donald Trump’s negotiating tactics.
Trump made a bold bet: that by breaking precedent and engaging directly with Kim Jong-un, he could convince the brutal young autocrat to give up his nuclear arsenal in exchange for future economic gains.
But the approach, which has included three face-to-face meetings, has resulted in no such breakthrough while arguably disempowering top aides to Trump as well as US diplomats.
Some US officials have found it hard to even get in touch with their North Korean counterparts; in some prominent cases, they have been publicly scorned. Trump’s game plan also essentially sidelined US allies in Asia, as well as US rival China, all of whom have a great deal at stake in Pyongyang’s future.
Now, amid rumours that Kim is sick or even dead, current and former US officials and North Korea analysts say Trump’s mano-a-mano diplomacy looks shakier than ever because the Trump-Kim relationship has been the only one that truly mattered.
