US President Donald Trump who was eager to meet the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un some weeks ago is now having mixed feelings about that summit meeting. Trump has now declared that he would pull out of the meeting if his diplomatic overture was unlikely to be successful. He seems to have realised a bit late that Kim Jong-un is a slippery customer and inscrutable to say the least.
Trump has decided to depute CIA director, Mike Pompeo instead to meet Kim and lay the groundwork for the proposed summit. Pompeo was nominated Secretary of State in March this year. The US President is hamstrung by the fact that three American citizens are detained in North Korea. The US is now trying to obtain their release although Trump would not make that a pre-condition for his meeting with Kim. Trump also did not seek any new concessions from North Korea. The US President’s turn-around is interesting, considering he had threatened to go to war against North Korea some months ago.
Meanwhile Pompeo is expected to broker a deal that would be in the interest of both countries and something that Kim cannot refuse. What the US is looking at is de-nuclearisation of the world and of North Korea in particular. But whether this will really fructify is a good question considering Pompeo’s lack of diplomatic skills, having been in the CIA for the larger part of his career. Pompeo’s meeting with Kim on Sunday last did not yield the desired results. The three Korean- Americans are still under detention on charges of espionage against North Korea.
The date and venue of the Trump-Kim summit has not yet been fixed. It would appear that for the first time the US is handling a tough head of state. Kim Jong-un is not an easy customer to negotiate deals with.