Kim Blinks

North Korea announced late Friday that it’s stopping all nuke tests and ICBM launches. Is Pyongyang really getting ready to fold?

The move followed word from South Korea that Kim Jong-un won’t insist on a withdrawal of all US forces in his coming nuclear negotiations with President Trump, as well as feelers about officially ending the Korean War, which has technically just been in cease-fire all these decades.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that the latest rounds of US and UN sanctions have bitten deep, with factories closed for lack of materials and military units stranded without fuel.

It’s possible that Kim feels desperate, or that China has ordered him to give in. Maybe he has always secretly wanted peace so he can indulge all his luxuries without fear, and has finally crushed all internal threats that would prevent him from making a deal.

Taken at face value, Kim’s moves are extremely good news — these are major steps, even though each is easily reversed.

For now, Team Trump has to treat it all as Kim’s effort to raise expectations so high that Trump feels compelled to take a bad deal when the two leaders sit down in June.

Until the president has a real surrender — a verifiable end to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs — in hand, he shouldn’t add a single chip to the pot.