Trump’s Korea move is more PR than peace

SO HAS Donald Trump made the world a safer place? Maybe. But was ending the status of Kim Jong-un as the world’s greatest living Bond-villain, bringing him in from the cold, worth more than a maybe? The mass murderer desperately needed validation for his dictatorship in a pariah state. He has been rewarded with the cloak of legitimacy successive administrations have refused him because of the brutality and blatant disregard for human rights his regime represents.

An end to isolation and international recognition is a major win for Mr Kim. As is the suspension of US military exercises, which the administration had insisted was non-negotiable. Once more ‘Little Rocket Man’ has lift off.

And for Mr Trump? He has given momentary pause for thought that perhaps, chaos and confusion tactics can make progress: by slipping into maximum mayhem mode, and blowing up conventional diplomatic norms, you may get results. But you can’t build peace on a perhaps.

It is way too early to hail Donald the Peacemaker.

If the devil is in the detail, he was Awol. The “agreement” commits the US and North Korea to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. But there is no mention the process will be verifiable or irreversible, which the US has been insisting on. We also await a timetable for disarmament or provision for weapons inspectors.

America will provide security guarantees without specifying what they are – or if the removal of some of the 28,000 US troops based in South Korea is on the table.

A treaty to end the near 70-year war may happen. The problem with President Trump is that extraordinary agreement or total consternation are never more than one Twitter storm apart. In the short-term – all that matters to Mr Trump – this was a PR success.

For the rest of the world it was a triumph for befuddlement.