The Trump-Kim drama – a deal tomorrow, but not today

The prospects for a deal between the U.S. and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) remain dim because the arrogant attitude of President Donald Trump and key business/economic decision-makers at the White House is this: In this drama, what's mine is mine; what's yours is negotiable.
For this, you only need to take a look at the developing facts-on-the-ground between the U.S. and the DPRK. Here, Trump's position always boils down to a deal tomorrow, but not today. And DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, promised some vague U.S. guarantees, says he will wait "until the end of this year" for Washington to make "courageous" decisions in talks.
And that's only part of the equation. The hope for a third summit has been raised yet again by President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in. It's now easy to lose focus amid all those flying to the White House, holding hours of talks, telephone conversations and video conferences, and meeting most of the neocon leaders one-to-one, where one thing remains persistent: The third summit would be yet another diplomatic collapse because “The Great Decider” has no clothes.


Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in (R) and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un attend a farewell ceremony at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone in the ROK, April 27, 2018. /VCG Photo
The U.S. foreign policy always consists of taking everything and offering nothing in return, while at the same time ignoring the security concerns of the Korean Peninsula and the suffering of the DPRK people. On top, the goal of a denuclearization solution under the Panmunjom Declaration requires more than a halt to nuclear and missile tests. It requires that Washington gradually removes the existing sanctions, and this is what Trump is not doing.
Trump keeps talking about a nuclear-free zone deal that the “War Party” is in the meantime nuclearizing. The acrimony is an excuse for increased military deployments and war games, and a chance to push Seoul into increasing its military spending, including buying costly U.S.-made arms.
What this does reveal is that Washington is baying for a way out, while falsely depicting a dangerous DPRK nuclear threat through disputed experiments, questionable documents, unreliable sources, and a sea of political rhetoric. By refusing to lift the economic sanctions, Washington also conspires to mislead the world in this new ruse. The risk is they might have to go to war to confront a manufactured threat they know does not exist.
For all the obvious historical reasons, it's about time to accept that the U.S. has no serious run at reality and that the Trump-Kim summits were all set up to fail. No matter how many violations of international agreements and treaties it commits, the U.S. will always stand firm behind its escalating foreign policy of provocation. It will never bring about peace in the region or maintain the current momentum for regional dialogue.
In realpolitik terms, there isn't much the U.S. can do. To approach this issue another way, if the third summit escalates to something that may cause more instability, the “War Party” will only have itself to blame. Trump should take responsibility for the consequences.