Trump fails to make deal but progress indisputable

Donald Trump deserves credit for the outcome of his second summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un despite the lack of anything to show for it on paper. Trump counts it as progress that they are continuing to meet amicably and he is right. He has been expressing his regard for Chairman Kim with his usual rhetorical excess but in this case superlatives do no harm.

It has made a welcome change from the sinister image the West has long had of North Korea and its strange ruling dynasty, rarely seen before this US President defied conventional diplomatic bargaining and gave the regime last year’s toplevel meeting in Singapore without preconditions.

The appearance of the two leaders walking and talking together in Hanoi before their second meeting on Thursday, and the fact that Kim had a press conference afterwards — possibly the first time any of the Kims has invited questions from Western reporters — speaks louder than anything either man said.

But what they did say sounds promising. According to Trump, their talks reached an impasse when Kim would not make a better offer on “denuclearisation” unless the US ended all economic sanctions on his country. “Sometimes you have to walk,” said Trump, suggesting it was just a tactical move on his part. Lest anyone think the impasse was serious, he added, “I’d rather do it right than do it fast . . . We’re in a position to do something very special.”

The American side wants North Korea to dismantle its entire nuclear arsenal in return for the lifting of sanctions. That is probably unrealistic. So is the American notion that “denuclearisation” refers only to North Korea. The written agreement reached at Singapore referred to the “denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”. At his Hanoi press conference, Kim was asked whether he was ready to “denuclearise” and replied, “If I’m not willing to do that I won’t be here right now”.

It’s quite likely both leaders already know what a successful deal would look like. Trump would get a verifiable decommissioning of all North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles and Kim would get a withdrawal of US forces from South Korea. But a US withdrawal remains unthinkable in Washington, as it is for South Korea and Japan.

It will require more confidencebuilding steps such as both Trump and the South Korean leaders have taken in recent years, to reach the level of trust required for the deal North Korea would like.

Trump’s campaign for the presidency gave countries such as North Korea every reason to hope that if he won, US forward defences would be reviewed on many fronts. He criticised the cost of keeping forces stationed abroad and resolved to force America’s allies to bear more of the burden of collective security. In office he has not been closing US bases overseas but he did make the offer to North Korea at Singapore to suspend US military exercises on the peninsula.

If Kim will settle for nothing less than a complete withdrawal, Trump might be content with the progress he has made so far. Americans are no longer hearing nuclear threats from Pyongyang, officials of the two countries are continuing to meet, US envoys are getting to know North Korea much better and their leaders appear to be getting along fine. That is progress.

Americans are no longer hearing nuclear threats . . . envoys are getting to know North Korea better and their leaders appear to be getting along.