Will weaning Kim Jong-un off of his addiction to building nuclear weapons require a second summit?Gordon G. Chang "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leaves for Pyongyang Thursday, his third trip to the North Korean capital.
"Pompeo’s upcoming visit will be the make-or-break moment in President Trump’s campaign to disarm the militant regime of Kim Jong-un.
"When Pompeo returns, the world should know whether the Trump administration’s fundamental assumption—that Kim has made a strategic decision to give up his nuclear arsenal—is correct.
"If that assumption is not correct—and at this moment it does not appear to be so—then Trump will have to do something he jokingly said in Singapore that he would not do: admit he was wrong about the North Korean leader.
"Unfortunately, it appears the president will make no such admission. Instead, it looks like he has chosen to retreat, backing away from demands that the North give up its most destructive weapons.
"At the moment, color Pompeo optimistic. “For decades, the North Korean leadership—Chairman Kim, his father, and grandfather alike—believed the nuclear program was their security out; it provided them with regime stability and security,” he said to Hugh Hewitt during his MSNBC interview conducted June 22. “And we’ve now flipped that narrative. I believe we have convinced him that that nuclear program, in fact, presents a threat to him and that giving up that program is the path towards a brighter future for the North Korean people.' ” . . .
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