Trump will end up agreeing that North Korea can keep its nukes

[DonViejo]

By Paul Waldman
June 12 at 1:36 PM

What just happened? That’s what everyone is struggling to figure out today after the brief summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. When I spoke today to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, he was blunt: “I don’t think they accomplished anything except for a photo op.”

I’d put it another way: While we can hope that years from now we’ll look back and say that this was the beginning of the end for the North Korean nuclear weapons program, it’s far more likely that we’ll say that this was one more step on a road toward acceptance of those weapons. For both his own reasons and the hard realities of the situation, Trump probably just agreed that Kim can keep his nukes.

That’s not what he’s saying, of course. “He’s de-nuking, I mean he’s de-nuking the whole place,” Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “It’s going to start very quickly. I think he’s going to start now.” But at a news conference in Singapore, he said, “You know scientifically, I’ve been watching and reading a lot about this, and it does take a long time to pull off complete denuclearization, it takes a long time. Scientifically you have to wait certain periods of time and a lot of things happen.” You know — scientifically. But what did Kim actually agree to? The answer is: basically nothing. Let’s look at the joint statement that Trump and Kim signed. Here’s the heart of it:

1. The United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) commit to establish new U.S.–DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/12/trump-will-end-up-agreeing-that-north-korea-can-keep-its-nukes/

[lunatica]

1. Trump has stated that he thinks other countries should have nuclear weapons

Are we pretending he didn’t mean it now?

[Nevernose]

2. It's virtually the same document we signed in 1993.

Four rather vague statements of being committed to peace, etc. It was meaningless then and it’s meaningless now.

I still don’t believe that the US has the moral authority to keep meddling in Korean affairs. It’s really hard to sell people on the dangers of nuclear weapons when the messenger has more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined. It’s really hard to condemn North Korean prisons when the only country on earth that incarcerates more people per capita is the one doing the finger wagging. It’s hard to feel outrage at a nation’s government over what might have happened to Otto Warmbier when at the same time we regularly boil prisoners alive, starve them to death, give life sentences to children, run prisons for profit, execute the mentally retarded, and a million other inhumane and evil actions daily.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

3. And

Who from the State Dept is going to stay over there....? tillerson ("Don't look him in the eye." Him=Tillerson.) fired everybody. Things have a way of catching up to people.