How many top diplomatic posts are vacant? How many government agencies have only an "acting" head? And now...
President Donald Trump has taken increased control of negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, sidelining his own top negotiator and dismissing the warnings of top intelligence and foreign policy advisors in the wake of last month’s failed summit in Vietnam, officials familiar with the developments tell TIME.
In recent days, Trump shut down an effort by Stephen Biegun, nominally the Administration’s lead negotiator with Pyongyang, to reestablish a back channel through the North’s United Nations mission in New York, according to four U.S. and South Korean officials.
At the same time, Trump continues to dismiss the conclusions of the CIA, State and Defense Departments and other agencies that North Korea will not abandon its nuclear weapons program, continuing to insist that he and Kim can negotiate a deal, according to two U.S.officials.
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“The President’s constant refrain is that Kim is his ‘friend’,” said one of the officials, who has tried to present Trump with the unanimous assessment by multiple agencies that Kim remains wedded to his nuclear program, both as a family mission and as a deterrent to any U.S.-led effort to overthrow his regime.
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The State Department declined to comment on-the-record regarding Biegun’s blocked outreach. A State Department spokesperson, speaking on background, denied the account.
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The officials said that they have tried to explain to Trump that the existing sanctions are only as strong as Russia and China, North Korea’s main allies, trading partners, and sources of fuel, allow them to be, and that Moscow’s and Beijing’s enforcement of them has been less than rigorous, as one U.S. official put it.
Trump’s insistence on serving as his own lead negotiator, concentrating decision making at the White House has rattled not only U.S. officials outside the White House, but also their counterparts in South Korea and Japan, all the officials said.
Time
I don't doubt it.
[One] official fears Trump might lift some or all the economic sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for a North Korean pledge to continue a freeze on development and testing of new missiles and warheads and halt efforts to develop a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile and reentry vehicle capable of striking targets in the U.S.
Such a deal would leave South Korea and Japan, and American forces in Northeast Asia, still vulnerable to North Korea’s existing nuclear arsenal.
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A second fear, especially in Japan, is that South Korean President Moon Jae-in may urge Trump to cut such a deal. Moon is eager to cultivate better economic and political relations with the North amid lagging domestic support. The Japanese worry that Trump, who already has halted the major joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise, could settle for deal that falls short of eliminating the military threat from the North.
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Trump has long said that he values his own instincts over expert advice.
“I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me,” he told the Washington Post last November.
We remember.
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