Opinion | Trump-Kim summit 2019: with little leverage against North Korea, US made right decision to forgo bad deal
- Failure of two leaders to reach a denuclearisation agreement at Hanoi summit was the better option for Donald Trump, argues Asia Society’s Daniel Russel
The world sighed in relief that the Hanoi Summit did not end in an acrimonious return to “fire and fury” and Korea watchers were relieved that Donald Trump concluded that no deal was better than a dangerously bad one.
But the Hanoi Summit validates Benjamin Franklin’s axiom that “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.
For nearly eight months after the Singapore summit, North Korea dodged US negotiators and only agreed to meet them after a second leaders’ summit was scheduled. The hard diplomatic work of narrowing differences and exploring options had simply not been done, so it is not surprising that the two leaders encountered insurmountable differences.
Trump correctly pointed out this would leave untouched North Korea’s other undeclared nuclear facilities that US intelligence has known about for years. And Pompeo noted the proposed deal failed to address North Korea’s existing missiles or nuclear warheads.
Worryingly, Pompeo made no reference to North Korea’s stockpiles of fissile material or the hidden manufacturing facilities where it is busy building additional nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Trump underscored that Kim had agreed to extend his moratorium on nuclear tests and long range ballistic missile launches.
Kim is not testing ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs at the moment, but he is clearly testing Donald Trump.
