In my prior post on Kim Jong Un's "beautiful letter," in which Trump claims Kim made "a small apology" for recent missiles launched, there was confusion and doubt about the truthfulness of Trump's statement.
And it's even more dubious now that Kim has done it again. Even as Trump's praise of Kim's "apology" still rings in the news cycle, he's done it again. Fired some kind of projectiles into the sea near Japan and South Korea again yesterday.
Kim also said, according to Trump, that he would stop firing the missiles when the US and South Korea ended the joint military exercises. Apparently they didn't stop, so he fired more . . . something.
That just doesn't jibe with "an apology" for firing missiles.
Here's the only way this makes sense to me. Kim now clearly has the upper hand in these negotiations. Trump needs a third summit meeting more than Kim does, with the US election coming up. So the shoe is on the other foot now.
Not in any substantive way. Kim has no advantage nor any incentive to actually move toward denuclearization. But Trump definitely needs to have something that he can distort into propaganda, pointing to success, for political purposes in the 2020 election.
Ralph
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