I don’t talk much about politics, and the intent is certainly not to talk about it here on a daily basis. I like to talk about theory; the ‘what ifs’ in our daily lives.
President Trump has not been known or recognized by his peers as someone that actually inspires change. I didn’t vote for him (and I didn’t vote for Hillary either), and I’m lost somewhere between defending the Office of the Presidency even with Trump in it, and not vomiting. It’s a weird place to be mentally. Sometimes I can’t see myself saying that I can’t believe we’re barely 25% done with this term yet.
With that being said, I think we ought to give credit where credit is due. Over the last 6 months there has been a dramatic shift with the North Koreans, and that is due, in part, because Trump stirred the pot. Trump said he’s going to deal with the North Koreans. He said he’ll put pressure on China. He did both of those things by being a catalyst – he changed the status quo.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/world/korea-summit-kang-kyung-wha-amanpour-intl/index.html
(CNN) South Korea’s foreign minister has said she believes President Donald Trump is largely responsible for bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table.
Speaking ahead of Friday’s historic summit between the leaders of North and South Korea, Kang Kyung-wha told CNN that the US President had played a significant role in bringing the two sides together.
“Clearly, credit goes to President Trump,” Kang told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Seoul. “He’s been determined to come to grips with this from day one.”
People tend to forget how much Trump has done with regard to North Korea. Six months ago, Trump signed a coal deal with China. This helped China because they were too dependent on coal from North Korea to block it, but with the deal from Trump they are in a fine position for their coal deliveries.
A month after the coal began arriving into China, they stopped all imports from North Korea. With China no longer helping North Korea, all the DPRK has is Russia to turn to while the US-backed sanctions continued to bite.
North Korea turned to the black market to try and bypass sanctions, but the International community caught them.
European countries started smelling the roses, and Sweden – a North Korean allay – basically told them they’re going to withdraw their embassy if they did not sit at the table and negotiate. North Korea can not sit and threaten the ROK, the United States, and the rest of the world with no response.
Additionally, with President Xi in China consolidating power in China making himself essentially President for life, China can no longer kick the DPRK into the tall grass for the next person to deal with. Xi IS the tall grass now, and best to deal with the DPRK now than later. Broker peace now, or be replaced.
So in this case, it appears that Trump’s unorthodox decisions have actually worked out in our favor. Upsetting the status quo has proven to be exactly what was needed. As much as it pains me to say it, Trump should get some credit for this. While we are in the early stages of NPRK/ROK peace, it’s encouraging what has transpired over the last 36 hours.
A user on Reddit (SovietWomble) posted a rather lengthy “dumbed down” version of the NPRK crisis into a well done and elaborate version of a playground. It’s a good read.
Trump may not be the solution, but he is the catalyst – chemically speaking.