How South Korea’s president pulled the US and North Korea back from the brink of war
"What Would War with North Korea Look Like?" ""The US must talk to North Korea – not threaten war""
Moon Jae-in turned Trump’s North Korea policy upside down with a master class in diplomacy.
By Zeeshan Aleem@ZeeshanAleemzeeshan.aleem@vox.com Mar 9, 2018, 5:10pm EST
Kim Hong-ji - Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s decision to agree to a historic face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be traced back to the savvy politicking of another leader entirely: South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Moon, who has been in office just 10 months, played a pivotal role in setting up the potential summit. That’s a particularly impressive accomplishment for Moon given that he and Trump have at times clashed sharply about how aggressively to confront North Korea. Tensions got so bad that in September, Trump accused Moon of “appeasement.”
Trump is taking a very different line now, expressing an openness to talks with Kim that would have seemed unimaginable when the president threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea during a United Nations address in September.
Experts say the shift reflects the success of Moon’s persistent push for “anytime, anywhere” diplomacy with Pyongyang. The South Korean leader’s efforts got a major boost during the runup to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, when he and Kim got into high-level talks over North Korea’s participation in the games. Moon used the momentum from those talks to set the stage for an unprecedented US-North Korean summit.
“South Korea deserves the vast bulk of the credit for this summit offer,” Mintaro Oba, a former State Department official who worked on North Korea policy, told me. “This wouldn’t have happened without President Moon’s initiative and deftness in balancing engagement with North Korea and close coordination with the United States.”
It is invalid and illegitimate to give credit to Trump for the possibility of this summit taking place, as his ranting attacks on Kim Jung-un served no good leadership purpose at all.
Why would Kim Jong Un make a secret trip to China?
"What Would War with North Korea Look Like?"
By James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 1822 GMT (0222 HKT) March 27, 2018
Hong Kong (CNN) A surprise visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to China may indicate Pyongyang's need for support from its closest ally ahead of upcoming summits with South Korea and the US.
Observers say it would be highly unusual for Kim to meet US President Donald Trump without seeing Chinese President Xi Jinping first. Kim has never met a foreign leader since he took power in 2011, yet China is North Korea's number one trading and economic partner, and is Pyongyang's only major military ally.
The circumstances surrounding the North Korean leader's apparent trip to Beijing are murky, including which side initiated talks and what was discussed. Neither China nor North Korea have confirmed the trip, but an official with deep knowledge of North Korea told CNN that there was a strong possibility that Kim was in the Chinese capital.
A green armored train was spotted at a train station in the Chinese capital Monday, accompanied by a large security presence, leading to speculation that Kim was in the city.
Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are due to meet next month, and a proposed meeting with Trump is due to take place by May. Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow at Leeds University, said it would have been almost unthinkable for Kim to meet with Moon and Trump having never met Xi Jinping, given the importance of the Sino-Korean alliance.
A pedestrian passes portraits of the late Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Feb. 17.
Over the past year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accelerated his country’s rush toward nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, presenting President Donald Trump with an impending crisis. TIME asked six experts how we got here, why the problem is so urgent and so hard—and what China and the U.S. can do now to solve it http://time.com/north-korea-opinion/
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