by WorldTribune Staff, June 12, 2018
U.S. President Donald Trump showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a 4-minute video which featured “what could happen” in North Korea. The visual presentation impressed Kim, Trump said following the summit in Singapore on June 12.
The emphasis on personal chemistry and public perception on a global scale was integral to a U.S. strategy that is countered by grim geopolitical realities as critics were quick to point out.
The Hollywood-produced video showed the economic benefits Pyongyang could enjoy upon the lifting of sanctions, particularly in the development of what Trump called the North’s “great beaches.”
“Although I tell you what, he looked at that tape, he looked at that iPad. And I’m telling you they really enjoyed it, I believe,” Trump said.
“They have great beaches! You see that whenever they’re exploding the cannons into the ocean, right?” Trump said after he played the video for the press corps.
“So I said, ‘Boy, look at that beach. Wouldn’t that make a great condo behind–,’ and I explained it,” the president said. “I said, ‘Instead of doing that you could have the best hotels in the world right there.’ Think of it from a real estate perspective.”
A voice over in the video described the Singapore summit as “a special moment in time when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated. What will he choose? To show vision and leadership? Or not?”
The narrator continues: “Will this leader choose to advance his country and be part of a new world? Be the hero of his people? Will he shake the hand of peace and enjoy prosperity like he has never seen? A great life, or isolation? Which path will be chosen?”
View the full video Trump presented to Kim here
While Trump was meeting with Kim in Singapore, opposition pundits wasted no time in pointing out the president’s alleged failures at the summit.
Some noted that Trump “was treating as an equal a man who only a few months ago seemed to be tipping the world towards nuclear war and whose regime has been accused of horrendous human rights abuses,” Richard Carter wrote for AFP.
“The optics of this summit – from the handshakes, to the flag arrangements, to the seating arrangements – are indistinguishable from a meeting between two sovereign states with normal diplomatic relations,” said security commentator Ankit Panda. It was not necessarily an “unbearable cost”, he tweeted, but added: “The legitimizing effect on North Korea’s regime is undeniable.”
The Washington Post insisted that the biggest winner of the Trump-Kim summit was China.
“In Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wildest dreams, he could not have envisioned a better outcome … at least as it concerns Beijing’s interests,” the Post’s Josh Rogin wrote in an op-ed.
“After one day of meetings, Trump agreed to halt U.S.-South Korea military exercises, doing exactly what the Chinese government proposed ahead of the summit,” Rogin wrote. “Trump publicly stated he wants to remove all U.S. troops from South Korea, which would be a huge strategic windfall for China. Trump acknowledged that China is busting sanctions on North Korea, but indicated there’s nothing he can do about it. And Trump legitimized the North Korean regime, beginning a long process that will keep Beijing as a key player with huge leverage on both sides.”
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