How Trump set us back: The trouble with the Singapore summit
By Mieke Eoyang Jun 12, 2018
There were flags. There were handshakes. There were cameras. There were bold announcements. President Trump’s summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un had all the pomp and circumstance of an episode of “The Apprentice: Nuclear Weapons Edition.”
But when it came down to putting the agreement down on paper, what we got was worse than theater. Trump and Kim promised to “denuclearize” in exchange for security guarantees, but behind those broad-sounding words, it was short on the kind of specifics that would have made any measurable difference to America’s security.
Let’s not forget that North Korea has actual nuclear weapons, by some estimates as many as 60. And it has been testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can deliver those weapons to devastate American cities, not just Honolulu but Los Angeles and possibly further east. North Korea has missiles that it regularly shoots over our allies and American troops in Japan, and it’s a short lob over the border to South Korea and the tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed nearby.
Worse, North Korea has a history of threatening its neighbors and nuclear tests to scare everyone back to the negotiating table, getting concessions, and then starting the cycle all over again. But Trump, who thought this summit was more about attitude than preparation, wasn’t interested in that history. He decided it was enough to look into the eyes of one of the most brutal dictators on the planet — who had returned Otto Warmbier to his family in a coma — and make a deal.
But the deal, to the extent there is one, sets back American security. When Kim offered to close just one missile engine-testing facility, Trump offered to stop all U.S. military exercises with our ally South Korea. These exercises are not symbolic war games, as Trump seems to think, but necessary preparation for American troops working with South Korean partners to be ready for conflict.
Remember, U.S. troops rotate through, so every few years there’s a new group of people who need exercises to be ready. Trump may decide that attitude is more important than preparation for negotiations, but if our troops aren’t prepared, then he is gambling with their lives.
Further, Kim’s one concession may be a ruse. Reports suggest the North Koreans had already destroyed a testing facility before the summit began. And even the offer of destroying a test facility makes no difference to North Korea’s existing arsenals. This is why Trump needed to do his homework, so he would know the difference between real progress and a fraud.
Before the summit, some criticized Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, for laying out specific, measurable goals for these negotiations.
But it turns out they were keeping the focus on what really matters, which are actual reductions in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, as verified by international inspectors. Given the Kim family’s long history of making then breaking deals, no one should simply take their word that they will make progress towards denuclearization.
Trump’s failure in Singapore doesn’t mean that he should give up on diplomacy. In fact, it’s arguable that he didn’t really engage in diplomacy, but showmanship. Real arms control negotiations are not based on personal charm but a hard-nosed accounting for nuclear capabilities and a step-by-step reduction in those capabilities, as verified by an independent third party, on an agreed timeline.
The two parties have agreed to meet again. To prevent a repeat of what we just went through, before they do, Trump needs to do more homework so he can deliver real, not symbolic, results.
Eoyang is vice president for the national security program at Third Way.
