Kim’s olive branch trouble for Trump
Experts: N. Korea’s entreaty to South could box prez in
The public olive branch Kim Jong Un extended to South Korea in a New Year’s Day speech could complicate President Trump’s own hard-line tactics in dealing with the normally reclusive North Korea, experts say.
Kim’s offer to send a delegation to the South Korea-hosted Olympics next month and open a dialogue with his U.S.-allied neighbor marked a rare shift in tone for the volatile leader, even as he claimed he could launch a nuclear missile against the United States at any time.
But the comments, while greeted enthusiastically by South Korean leaders, may make it difficult for Trump to continue his own rhetoric on North Korea, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a Tufts University Fletcher School professor and North Korea expert.
“It paints Trump further into the corner as the aggressor, even when the crux of the matter is North Korea (has) an illegal nuclear program,” Lee said. “But whenever Kim takes a mini-step back, he’s able to make a U.S. president look like the aggressor.
“The U.S. and its allies have a less well-developed game plan and no real strategy over the last 25 years,” Lee added. “One doesn’t need to be a genius to see that this is what North Korea does: After having created a war-like, crisis atmosphere, (Kim) takes a small step back and there’s a collective sigh of relief that there’s no war. It does wonders for North Korea’s image.”
Kim delivered his double-barreled message during a televised address yesterday. He called the Winter Olympics next month in South Korea “a good opportunity to display the status of the Korean nation” and said he hopes to meet with South Korean leaders soon.
But he also boasted about having a “button for nuclear weapons” on his desk and warned the United States not to provoke him, according to a translation by the Associated Press.
“The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range . ... The United States can never start a war against me and our country,” Kim said.
Robert S. Ross, a Boston College political science professor, said Kim could be motivated by several factors in reaching out to South Korea, including by trying to “undermine America’s ability to cooperate” with its longtime ally.
“The other possibility,” Ross said, “is that they feel fairly comfortable in their nuclear capabilities, so they feel now is the time to talk because they accomplished their objective.”
In November, North Korea said it launched a test missile powerful enough to send a warhead to the East Coast of the U.S.