A surprise visit by North Korea’s Kim Jung Un has stolen the limelight from South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in breakthrough deal with the Northerners.
The North Koreans staged a coup with their leader earlier in the week popping up in Beijing – entirely unannounced – for his first international trip.
That appearance only muddied the waters regarding the North’s true intentions for its summit with the South and the summit with Trump expected before the end of May, wrote the South China Morning Post.
The situation, it said, had become more complex after Trump appointed notorious hawk John Bolton as national security adviser last week.
Further complicating matters, Trump on Thursday said he may put off implementing a new US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) deal with Seoul until after his own meeting with Kim, said the Hong Kong-based paper.
Nevertheless, WFTV had said the Kim-Trump flirt was as tricky as a game of slide in the icy cold Korean winter games.
While U.S. President Donald Trump is making up for his promises of meeting with North Korean leader Kin Jung Un, the timing of the agreement for a meeting pointed to a weakness from the North’s side.
Kim had to do all he could to reverse that weakness.
He jumped to Beijing to show that he still has some buttons on his desk that he can push without irritating Trump.
Certainly, since the Trump-Kim meeting will not be the end game for North Korea.
Instead, it may probably spearhead into something else.
Either the North will drag its feet on the U.S. denuclearization plans for Pyongyang, with the backing of China or it will ask more from the Americans?
Whichever way it goes, China, the main of the Koreans will have to do everything it takes at diffusing the biggest war threats in the peninsula.
<Hence, Kim’s visit to Beijing has opened up another angle to the Trump-Kim meeting set for sometime in May this year.
it will probably force the Americans to bolt China in the same driving seat with Trump: That is the complete destruction of the North’s nuclear arsenal.
The entire American strategy has so far relied on pressure and bold headlines.
With Bolton as the man who will be responsible for the talks with the North Koreans, the U.S. will get tougher.
Kim will look for more leverages prior to the meeting with Trump.
What will he do next besides popping up in Beijing? That is the next thing to watch!