One certain summit outcome is that both sides will claim a ‘victory’
No matter whether today’s summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un succeeds in persuading North Korea to unconditionally denuclearise the Korean peninsula, each of the two leaders will head back home claiming victory for his own “great achievements” in Singapore.
Trump will head back to the United States and arrogate about the “tremendous” achievements he has made simply by persuading Kim to agree to the summit in the island state.
Trump will also use this summit as a propaganda tool to prop up the Republican Party during the campaign for the midterm elections in November.
On the other hand, Kim will declare that he is not the worst of the world’s bad guys after all. His summit with Trump will guarantee for Kim that the US will stop its threats of force against his country – at least for a while. China will be happy as well that Kim has lessened the pressure from the US for it to stop aiding and abetting North Korea.
The question is: Should the rest of the world feel happy with them too?
Vint Chavala
