Trump Should Aim Small on North Korea
The grand bargain is a trap. Focus on detailed, verifiable actions that gradually reduce North Korean capabilities.
Hanoi is getting ready.
Photographer: Linh Pham/Getty Images
This week’s summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers an opportunity for the sort of spectacle Trump loves — starring himself as the wizardly negotiator who wins huge concessions that eluded his inept predecessors. He’d be wise to resist the temptation, and to concentrate on progress not theater.
A real grand bargain with North Korea is, at this point, virtually impossible. It would ask too much of both sides — for North Korea to eliminate its nuclear and long-range missile arsenals and production facilities, which the regime sees as essential for its survival; and for the U.S. to end sanctions and possibly withdraw troops from the Korean Peninsula, which would undermine its alliances and strategic position in Northeast Asia.