I don’t think Kim will give up his nukes. He has offered but I have no faith in that outcome. He will give up testing for sure and probably also expansion; Kim ‘may’ even join the NPT and allow inspections of his arsenal. But his nukes stay. They’re his only card against us, and the Chinese, and he won’t give them up. But…the North Koreans are offering talks with no real preconditions (unprecedented) and have promised us and the Chinese to dismantle their testing sites (unprecedented). That’s progress.

You’re right, this is at heart just a formal acknowledgment of DPRK as a nuclear power and Kim Jong-Un as a legitimate head of state. Trump is only one of three presidents who had to face this situation. I don’t see the apocalypse looming because we decided to face reality and deal with the situation as is. A formal peace treaty is good for all players. Ignoring reality has done nothing positive for 60 years in Cuba and 70 in North Korea; why not try something different and actually speak to the people in charge over there directly?

Also, what exactly do you think that release from the White House today about helping Chinese employment was about? That’s the USA going “through China first” as you said. I’m willing to believe that even the tariff bravado against China was part of DPRK/China negotiations as we no longer hear anything about it.

I don’t know how anything I wrote leads you to believe that I am a fan of or have very much respect for Trump. But…broken clocks and all that. Of course, there’s still plenty of time for him to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I have done my homework, I’ve been a DPRK watcher for years and am currently writing a book about the burgeoning open markets in that country and what they could portend — although events are moving so quickly right now that I may just have to settle for a series of essays.

I listed the options we have as I see them. What is your suggested course of action?

The North Koreans are offering talks with no real preconditions (unprecedented) and have promised us and the Chinese to dismantle their testing sites (unprecedented). That’s progress.