Eli Lake, Columnist

Trump Was Right to Walk Away From Kim

But the president is wrong to hold out hope that the U.S. can help North Korea become a thriving economy.

February 28, 2019 at 2:36 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Picture of disappointment.
Photographer: Handout/Getty Images AsiaPac

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Arms-control enthusiasts must be disappointed. On Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump cut short his summit in Hanoi with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. “Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump explained later at a press conference.

He’s right. Trump said Kim demanded a full lifting of sanctions in exchange for only partial denuclearization. It’s an old tactic for the North Koreans. They negotiate, pocket concessions, then fail to deliver.