COURTSHIP RITUALS. Trump and Kim? It Ain't Over Till the Fat Leader Sings

[DonViejo]

North Korea’s reaction to Trump cancelling the Singapore summit was not what one might expect. The door’s still open, but deep misunderstandings remain.

SPENCER ACKERMAN
DONALD KIRK

05.25.18 10:48 AM ET

SEOUL – Let’s try and get this straight. Wasn’t it just last week that North Korea’s first vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan was lambasting President Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, for their “unilateral demands we give up nuclear weapons.” If they persisted in talking that way, he warned, “We will no longer have an interest in talks.”

Could it really be, the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a planned summit with Kim Jong Un, that this same official was talking like the shrewd two-or-more-faced negotiator that he was known to be more than 10 years ago in talks with the U.S., when a nuclear deal failed? And that Trump was welcoming the "warm and productive" reaction? "Everybody plays games," Trump said.

A senior White House official speaking to reporters on Thursday expressed pique that the North Koreans had “simply stood us up” by not preparing for the summit. But the official, when asked, also doubted that the summit could be salvaged owing to a more substantive gulf between Washington and Pyongyang. It was imperative, the official said, that the “agenda” of the meeting “is clear in the minds of those two leaders,” citing North Korea’s statements over the past two months that full denuclearization is not an option for Pyongyang. Closing that gap in the time necessary to prepare for the Singapore summit was unlikely, the official continued, since “June 12 is in ten minutes.” Less than 18 hours later, Trump said: “It could even be the 12th.”

Hmmm. It’s far from clear that the gulf has been closed, the core issues resolved. Almost certainly that is not the case. But the North Koreans did some amazing Trump-stroking. Reading the North Korean’s statement, it was as though Kim Kye Gwan thought secretly, at heart, almost as highly of Trump as he did of his own Respected Leader Kim. “We have inwardly highly appreciated President Trump for having made the bold decision, which any other U.S. presidents dared not, and made efforts for such a crucial event as the summit.”

Who knew? Who would have imagined Kim Kye Gwan was such a fan of Donald Trump even as South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, so eager for reconciliation and dialogue with the North, seemed almost in tears. Far from expressing his admiration for Trump, Moon on Friday was saying he found his decision “very perplexing, very regrettable.”

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-kim-it-aint-over-till-the-fat-leader-sings?ref=home

[Me.]

1. Which Fat Leader?

[0rganism]

2. i'm sure it will be a lovely duet

best ever like the world has never seen before really really special.

[NCjack]

3. Looks like neither of these two criminals is getting the Nobel Peace Prize. That puts

them into appropriate company. Adolf Hitler also wanted the award and did not get it.

[dalton99a]

4. Trump has an unhealthy fascination with murderous tyrants and dictators