North Korea summit offers no boost in stability, former diplomat says
President Trump's meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un didn't provide anything like a clear path to the rogue state's denuclearization, but it's a good step forward for the entire international community, said a former Canadian diplomat.
Tuesday's meeting between the two leaders ended with an agreement committing North Korea to nuclear disarmament, but offered no language and no timetable indicating when or how that might happen.
"President Trump gave a lot and got little," James Trottier, a diplomat who led assignments in North Korea in 2015 and 2016, told The House.
By giving up a one-on-one meeting with a U.S. president — something the North Koreans have been requesting for a very long time — and asking for nothing in return, the president acknowledged Kim as an equal, he explained.
"That agreement added immeasurably to Mr. Kim's status and legitimacy."
Trump exuded confidence after the summit, declaring on Twitter that he had ended the a nuclear threat from the Korean peninsula.
"There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong-un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!" A tweet read.
But the statement he and Kim signed was vague and used language recycled from the last 20 years of nuclear promises signed — and subsequently ignored — by North Korea.
Trottier said that is a problem, and a structured deal should have been on the table when Trump and Kim sat down together.
Instead, the two leaders left the meeting without what Trottier calls a clear way to verify denuclearization.
The tone of the meeting was positive — certainly in the wake of North Korea ramping up its missile testing over the past two years, and the insults Trump and Kim exchanged online. And Trottier said the summit at least keeps the lines of communication open between the international community and North Korea.
"The world is a safer place from what it was a year ago," Trottier said.
"But I don't give President Trump credit for having put the world on the brink [and] now pulling it back from the brink."
Looking to the future, Trottier said a continued relationship between the U.S. and North Korea is something that benefits the world, and Canada should encourage it.
He added a Canadian ambassadorial visit to North Korea is also long overdue.