Trumps madman rhetoric may have scared North Korea to talks, analysts say

[yuiyoshida]

SEOUL – U.S. President Donald Trump’s notoriously threatening rhetoric toward nuclear-armed North Korea — which has drawn comparisons with Richard Nixon’s “madman theory” of diplomacy — may deserve some credit for bringing Pyongyang to talks, analysts have said.

The two Koreas held their first official dialogue in more than two years this week, agreeing the North would send its athletes to next month’s Winter Olympics in the South and paving the way for further discussions.

The meeting represented a significant improvement after months of confrontation, during which Pyongyang carried out multiple missile tests and by far its biggest nuclear detonation to date.

At the same time Trump was blamed for heightening tensions with his threats to rain “fire and fury” on the North — now the title of an incendiary book on his presidency — and assertions that its leader Kim Jong Un was on a “suicide mission.”

Since Kim inherited power in 2011, North Korea has made rapid progress toward its goal of developing a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States, which significantly strengthens its negotiating position.

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https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/12/asia-pacific/trumps-madman-rhetoric-may-scared-north-korea-talks-analysts-say/#.WlhH0dQrLMp

[Iliyah]

1. Nope

[sfwriter]

2. That was the idea...

...now will Trump remember that was the idea or believe his own his rhetoric? If he forgets that negotiation is the goal and gets hung up on no more tests or something, we're really screwed.

I'm expecting Trump to try a limited strike next. If he does that AFTER NK is at the table, then what reason do they have to believe anything we say.

Remember, he keeps saying he'll sort this out, solve it, fix the problem left by the last administration, etc. It doesn't sound like he is thinking about a long process.

[John Fante]

3. Yeah, because Nixon's madman theory

had the North Vietnamese shaking in their boots.