https://thehill.com/opinion/international/432329-when-no-north-korean-deal-is-the-best-deal

By walking away, Trump signaled that his administration will not follow U.S. administrations before him into signing empty deals that give North Korea too much, while requiring too few promises in return.

As a first-generation Korean-American whose mother escaped from the North to the South during the Korean War, I watch affairs on the Korean peninsula very carefully. The Kim regime continues to perpetrate gruesome crimes against the people of North Korea, to sell weapons to America’s enemies and to pose a nuclear threat to the world. These are matters that cannot be taken lightly.

Since his inauguration, Trump has called for denuclearization as a necessary first step to easing restrictions on the Kim regime. He furthered that goal during the Hanoi summit by refusing to relieve sanctions without agreement from North Korea to dismantle not only the Yongbyon nuclear site, but other elements of its nuclear program as well.

Walking away didn’t shut the door to future negotiations. On the contrary, it helped define a clear line beyond which the U.S. will not cross. ….

While I think that is certainly true, I think the other prime operative is any excuse to find a reason to criticize Trump, his administration, and any of his actions. I’ve said before, if Trump walked on water, the headlines would be: “Trump can’t swim!”

There seems to be hardly anyone among our political and chattering classes who has the faintest idea of negotiating. No wonder they can’t understand what Trump does.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/01/trump-north-korea-summit-reykjavik-225513

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/28/trump-north-korea-summit-1195227

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2019/03/trump-walked-away-as-warning-to-red.html#more

This really shows up in stuff like pharmacuticals.

It also shows up in software — where most of the planet has to live with software that is two generations — even more — behind that of the USA.

The average income of Swedes places them below that of America’s poorest states. And they are supposed to be wealthy by European standards.

European visitors are always agog over the huge home sizes that are typical in the USA. They are even more agog to see the ‘toys’ that those on welfare have in their homes. (4k flat screen TVs being an in your face example.)

His son is still stuck with it.

What does this entail? Kim HAS TO GIVE ‘presents’ to his loyalists straight through the year. That’s right — EVERY DAY Kim is handing out goodies to his crowd.

Now imagine what might happen if Kim CAN’T carry on the gifting?

You guessed it: mutterings.

These gifts are ALWAYS imported goods. Nothing else would count… unless it’s a new apartment in Pyongyang.

NOW you can understand why Kim is always concerned about obtaining hard money — which he will spend in Europe. Yes, he has a buying office in Vienna dedicated to this mission.

You can go to Utube and Bing around for a full hour video about this wierd tic. The dope comes straight from a dude who used to run it. (!)

Until he blabbed, no-one on the outside had any grasp of what was going on… the scale of the project.

Kim’s game plan was to retail atomics to America so that he could then convert the receipts into ever more ‘gifts’ to his crowd.

Trump is putting pressure on Kim — by tariffs on Red China. That’s why the tariff date was pushed back a month. This is a three-way negotiation — and Kim is the minor player.

Don’t expect ANY reduction in tariffs until Kim is brought to heel.

Start thinking in terms of years and many, many more tariff bumps.

For both Xi and Kim are gagging on the trend.

The USA does not dominate the volume trade with Red China.

She dominates the PROFIT trade with Red China. Something like 80% of all of Red China’s profit is due to products ultimately retailing into the USA.

This stat is totally lost on the talking heads of the MSM… dunces every last one.

As I see it, Trump says a lot of things he doesn’t really believe, and that’s part of his negotiating strategy., his schtik.

Maybe Trump thinks that if he butters Kim up enough–says he is a “fine fellow”–it may well give Trump an advantage in negotiations somewhere down the road.