Kim Jung Un manipulates Trump again

This is based in part on an article in The Hill by John Bowden.

President Trump has announced what he calls "a really beautiful letter" from Kim Jong Un.   That's odd, because most of what Trump says about Kim's letter doesn't sound so beautiful.

It was, Trump says, "a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises" that we are currently carrying out with our military ally South Korea.     These regularly scheduled, 'war game' exercises help maintain military readiness for both the U.S. and the South Korean forces against possible aggression from North Korea.

Trump has no background for strategic planning and can only see the possibilities for economic development in North Korea -- golf resorts overlooking the coastal area;  high rises in the big cities.  So he tends to be more sympathetic toward Kim's position than to our own foreign policy establishment.

He did say that Kim "made a small apology" for the recent testing of short range missiles and said that "the testing would stop when the US/South Korea exercises end.   Kim adds further, according to Bowden's article:  "Pyongyang will judge the future of its relations with the U.S. on whether the Trump administration goes through with the joint exercises. North Korean officials have maintained that any joint operations between the U.S. and South Korea violate an agreement signed by Trump and Kim upon their first meeting last year."

This doesn't make much sense.  As recently as four days prior to Kim's letter, the North shot two more projectiles into the sea as a warning, making a total of five missile launches in the past two weeks.   Then suddenly Kim gets kudos from Trump for the "small" apology Trump says the letter contains about the missiles.   Where's the apology and what does Kim propose to do as penance?    Absolutely nothing.   He'll stop with the missiles if we stop violating the agreement, which Kim says he and Trump signed.    But apparently there's disagreement about that.

No wonder they get nowhere in negotiations.

Then Trump goes back to praising Kim's letter again.  It was a really long letter -- three full pages, all the way from the top to the bottom.    Just imagine!!!!   It must have really taxed Trump's powers of concentration to read it all.

Bowden's article gives us a little more clarity.   U.S. and North Korean officials have been engaged in negotiations toward setting up a third summit meeting.   Apparently there are more knowledgeable negotiators in that team than we would think from Trump's account of this letter.

I'm highly skeptical.   Kim is the smarter and more skilled manipulator than Trump, who would probably be satisfied with a meeting/photo-op that would contain something that Trump can then distort into politically useful propaganda -- like a break-through in negotiations that will eventually lead to a denuclearization of North Korea.

And Kim knows that's what Trump most wants -- bragging rights and political gain -- and he might just give it to him.    Not that it will lead to real substantive progress, but just enough for just long enough to benefit Trump in 2020.

But what will Kim's price be for that?   Because Trump will probably be willing to pay it.    He has precious little else to claim as "promises fulfilled."

Ralph