President Donald Trump has taken a “personalized” approach to North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un. His emphasis on establishing a personal, businessman-esque relationship with the North Korean leadership parallels his policy towards a number of other strongmen around the world such as MBS, Vladimir Putin, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Presidential administrations of yore have distanced themselves from such behavior as so to avoid legitimizing one of the most brutally repressive regimes on the planet.
A critical pitfall of this approach is the appearance that the United States is treating North Korea as an equal negotiating partner. All the administration has received in return for its efforts are empty promises that North Korea will put the breaks on its nuclear program. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has labeled these moving-framworks-to-a-potential-deal-in-concept as major foreign policy achievements. In exchange, the United States has alienated key regional ally South Korea by canceling joint military exercises and insisting that South Korea “pay up” for the presence of the 30,000 U.S. servicemen on the Korean Peninsula. Trump has even floated the idea of reducing U.S. troop numbers entirely. The move mirrors the diminishing U.S. commitment to its regional allies across the globe that has been observed under the current administration.
Ron,
This will be a brief response because I am still grading papers (in my other course). You have put your finger on one of the central dilemmas of trying to negotiate with the DPRK. If we continue to engage them as the president has twice done now, we inevitably are according them equal status. Yet, the only other alternative is to return to some form of multilateral negotiation, which proved fruitless over a long period of time. Hopefully, a new presidential administration will develop a new approach that will succeed in engaging the North, but the path ahead is very uncertain and difficult.
–Professor Wallerstein