Bloomberg
"Take it from someone who accompanied that secretary of state on a humiliating visit to Pyongyang in 2000."
"Take it from someone who accompanied that secretary of state on a humiliating visit to Pyongyang in 2000."
The next few episodes of the Donald Trump show should be riveting. This week, the South Korean national security adviser announced North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un invited Trump to meet to negotiate his nuclear weapons. The "dotard" may face off against "little rocket man" face-to-face. Stay tuned.
If indeed the unprecedented meeting comes to pass, it will be historic. That does not mean though that it will be wise. And unless Trump comes to these talks to negotiate the terms of Kim Jong-Un's surrender and abdication, the cost America will pay in legitimizing the warden of the Korean prison state will outweigh whatever empty promises are offered. But given that Trump is a man who adores distraction and adulation, we should brace ourselves for the upcoming spectacle.
So Trump should prepare. This does not mean late-night wonk sessions where Trump masters the details of North Korean medium-range missiles and past diplomatic agreements. Rather, the president should get in touch with the last senior American official to travel to Pyongyang, Madeleine Albright, to learn from her mistakes.
I was on that trip with Albright in the last week of October 2000. It was a low moment for American diplomacy, where a secretary of state, whose family fled the Iron Curtain, flattered an imitator of Josef Stalin. She ended the visit by handing over a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. Her delegation enjoyed elaborate multi-course banquets with North Korean officials who only a few years earlier had presided over a famine.
"As secretary of state for President Bill Clinton, Albright traveled to Pyongyang in a last-ditch effort for an administration that had watched its main foreign policy priority -- a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians -- unravel. This was a chance in the final months of the Clinton presidency for a legacy."Needless to say, it didn't work." . . . Keep reading
Madeleine Albright’s Other ‘Undiplomatic Moments’
So Trump should prepare. This does not mean late-night wonk sessions where Trump masters the details of North Korean medium-range missiles and past diplomatic agreements. Rather, the president should get in touch with the last senior American official to travel to Pyongyang, Madeleine Albright, to learn from her mistakes.
I was on that trip with Albright in the last week of October 2000. It was a low moment for American diplomacy, where a secretary of state, whose family fled the Iron Curtain, flattered an imitator of Josef Stalin. She ended the visit by handing over a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. Her delegation enjoyed elaborate multi-course banquets with North Korean officials who only a few years earlier had presided over a famine.
"As secretary of state for President Bill Clinton, Albright traveled to Pyongyang in a last-ditch effort for an administration that had watched its main foreign policy priority -- a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians -- unravel. This was a chance in the final months of the Clinton presidency for a legacy."Needless to say, it didn't work." . . . Keep reading
Madeleine Albright’s Other ‘Undiplomatic Moments’
“Shut the gates! Shut the gates!”. . . "There is a lesson for Trump in all of this. If he is looking for a legacy himself, he shouldn't waste his time negotiating with the dictator of North Korea. Who honestly believes Kim has any intention of abandoning his nuclear weapons? He is buying time." . . .
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