PudgeJong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
, the leader of
North Korea, and Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, had a positive summit ‐ and that Kim literally took a historic step into the South, as did Moon, briefly, into the North. Dialogue is certainly better than a march to war. That said, we all need to keep our expectations in check.Although the leaders agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration to work together toward a permanent peace rather than the current armistice and declared a commitment to "denuclearization," we cannot know whether this statement of principles will be of lasting worth until the details are hammered out. This is certain to be a long and difficult process.
Similarly, we should all welcome the Trump-Kim summit expected in May or June. But no summit declaration on that occasion will be meaningful regarding North Korea’s nuclear arsenal if the definition of the term "denuclearization" is left blurry and no robust verification regime is put in place. We need to see concrete steps. That would include, in the first instance, allowing the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency back into North Korea to begin an assessment of Pyongyang’s nuclear program and ensure, if possible, that North Korea is not advancing the program while talks continue.
Any US-North Korean declaration must also include a detailed definition of "denuclearization" to ensure that we are all talking about the same thing. In 1992, when the North and South issued a joint declaration, this term was born because "disarmament" was considered unacceptable terminology. Pyongyang has long used denuclearization as a proxy for ensuring that its security was guaranteed and not threatened by US military power and nuclear weapons. The United States, and the rest of the world, are looking for quite a different outcome: the destruction of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and permanent constraints on its missiles. President Trump must also concern himself with Americans held in North Korea, Pyongyang’s cybercrimes and its disastrous human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
record.
Related: Zero Hedge (but worthy of a read) - China's Long Game In Korea