The wheel has turned full circle as the one-time antagonists Kim and trump, who traded insults just a few weeks back, may have a face to face meeting. Trump is a man who believes in out of box solutions and his approval for a meeting with the North Korean dictator is part of that. No US president has ever met any North Korean leader and this meeting, if and when it takes place, will be a trailblazer.The Baltimore Sun has reported that the top spy in the US, the Cia Director, made a visit to North Korea and reportedly met the North Korean strongman Kim Jung-un.
The visit
Trump has confirmed the visit and he also said that the meeting between Pompeo and Kim Jong-un went off "very well." Before Trump and the dictator meet, a summit is being held between Moon Jai and Kim in the DMZ. This meeting will be important as it will pave the way for the Kim-Trump summit.
The meeting
Trump has indicated that the meeting will take place sometime in May and could be at a neutral venue. The chances are the meeting will take place somewhere close to Korea as Kim does not like to travel too much. To date, he has only visited Beijing once. China would like to host the meeting between Trump and Kim but the Americans may not like it as it will make China a party to the negotiations and take the edge away from Trump's effort.
Reports of the visit and meeting of the CIA director with Kim are sketchy but it probably took place around April 1. Trump is satisfied with the feedback from the visit and he has decided to go ahead with the meeting. The president has, however, warned that he expects some tangible results on de-nuclearization of the North otherwise he will respectfully just walk away from the meeting.
At the moment it appears the North Koreans have agreed to denuclearize and have also dropped their demand for the withdrawal of US troops from the Korean peninsula. This meeting, if and when it takes place, will be a groundbreaking meeting. Trump is doing something that the North Koreans had been requesting for decades and yet no American president has ever found it necessary to meet the Korean dictator.The father of Kim had also requested a meeting with the US president but no American president was ready for it.
Last word
Trump has broken all the rules regarding North Korea. His decision to meet Kim is nothing short of revolutionary, but it does look unlikely that North Korea will dismantle its nuclear weapons. Could Kim be buying time with this summit? One must remember that Trump may yet pull a rabbit out of the hat and may be successful. History is full of surprises.