Is Trump Being Played in Kim's Survival Game?

Two leaders, one a dictator of an isolated state and the other who oversees the world's largest economy and military, have agreed to meet. While many analysts hope a meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un might end nuclear threats for the region, journalist Shim Jae Hoon is cautious, suggesting that planning for such a meeting could be destabilizing. Tightened sanctions, interdiction of oil shipments, threats of “surgical strikes,” and “fire and fury” may have contributed to making Kim more amenable to negotiations, but old propaganda lines accompanied his overture to Trump, and the regime has a track record of breaking agreements. Two decades of aid and policies from South Korea helped fund the North's nuclear program, Shim writes, and South Korea's president is trying the summit process once again. The Kim regime has long regarded its nuclear weapons program as a ticket for survival and even leverage for eventual reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Should negotiations materialize, South Koreans hope that Trump has full understanding of the many issues at stake and does not abandon America's long-time allies.