North Korea agrees to give up their nuclear weapons after Trump/Kim summit.

President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un shake hands in Singapore. Dan Scavino Jr.

North Korea has agreed to give up their nuclear weapons after the meeting between President Donald Trump and Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Fox News. The document signed said that North Korea would work to "total denucluarization of the Korean Peninsula". In return the United States will cease war games in South Korea and will provide security guarantees to North Korea. North Korea will also return any remains of American soldiers and POW's that were left in North Korea after the Korean War. Additional details will be discussed in further meetings between Trump and Kim as well as their major advisers. Trump has also said that Kim Jong Un will be invited to the White House. 

During the summit, President Trump showed a video he commissioned that resembled a movie trailer. It argued that Kim Jong Un had a very strong economic and political opportunity.   

My Comment:

Before I get into the meat of this subject I have to say that I am utterly disgusted on how the media is treating this story. It was very difficult for me to find a source for this story as almost every news media outlet out there was just being hysterically anti-Trump. There were very few articles out there that were just a restatement of the event without all the side commentary. The Fox News report was the first one I found and it took a frustrating amount of googling to find even that.  

I understand that there is a need to be critical of every government action, but this was so over the top that I couldn't quite believe it. Almost every story was about some kind of criticism of the summit or one of Trump's enemies reacting to it. There were a few pro-summit opinion pieces thrown in as well, but zero actual news about the summit and what happened there. Some of that is due to me being late on the draw since the story broke last night, but I am guessing that like most people who work, I wasn't alone in not being able to find an unbiased accounting of what happened. 

I also think that the criticism of the summit is factually incorrect. People are acting shocked that Trump agreed to end military exercises but doing so should have been obvious to even the most uninformed Korea watcher. The North Korean regime sees those exercises as a clear and present danger to their regime and if they were not pulled no deal was likely to have taken place. To argue otherwise shows either an almost complete lack of understanding of the Korean peninsula or is evidence of motivated reasoning. 

As for the video I posted above, I do agree that it is pretty cheesy. But considering the audience it was a good move. Kim Jong Un is like his father in that he has a great love of film and was probably very impressed by the video. It also showed the very clear benefits to Kim personally if he cooperates. He gets to look like a hero and gets massive economic opportunities. I have no doubt that it helped even if the whole thing was a little silly. 

I also think it is important to restate that this was obviously a first step. There was no way we were ever going to come out of the Singapore meeting with every single detail hammered out and every problem solved. That will take months, maybe years, and will be handled in the follow up meetings. This was just an attempt to officially recognize that peace can happen. Sure, it could still fall apart, but we are moving in the right direction.    

I have to point out that Trump really did turn things around. About a year ago the media narrative was that Trump was unhinged and he would lead us into a war with North Korea. Now that the threat of war is at it's lowest level in decades, and Trump is largely responsible for that fate, does he get any credit for it? Of course not, because the media hates him. 

That being said, he really did accomplish something. We were on the path to war as a Nuclear North Korea with missile technology that could hit the United States was completely unacceptable. To the point that the only two options were North Korea giving up their nukes or war. We went with the 1st option because the 2nd was almost too horrible to consider. And it seems to be working out. 

The threat would have been true no matter who the president was but I am guessing that if Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or any of the cast of characters on the GOP side were president we would probably be at war with North Korea right now. Only Richard Nixon could go to China and only Trump could go to North Korea. I am guessing that history will look more kindly on Trump than Nixon though. 

A lot of the criticism of this deal is on the fact that it doesn't address North Korea's horrible human rights record. Expecting it to do so was pretty unrealistic. Any discussion of that issue would probably derail the summit and undo the large amount of work done to secure peace. 

Am I ok with that? Not much of a choice. We work with countries that treat their people horribly all the time, so I don't know why we can't do the same with North Korea. And though the government will continue to be extremely harsh, we can do a lot to improve the lives of North Korean citizens by easing sanctions and increasing trade, which is the end goal of this process. North Korea may still be a place where criticizing Kim Jong Un will get you thrown into a labor camp but it will at least be a place where people have enough food to eat and some basic creature comforts the rest of the world takes for granted. I wouldn't want to live in either place but if I had to choose which North Korea to exist in it would be the one with better economics and nutrition. 

Finally, despite all my grumbling about the media, I am very happy that this summit happened and that it worked out well. A war with North Korea would have been devastating and it looks like we have avoided that income for the foreseeable future. Peace won out and that is a really good thing even if the media will never admit it...