President Donald Trump must not delude himself into believing that Kim Jong Un will ever willingly divest himself of nuclear weapons, The Weekly Standard says in an editorial published Monday, following reports that CIA Director Mike Pompeo secretly met with the North Korea strongman.
"By agreeing to a meeting between President Trump himself and Kim Jong Un, the U.S. is giving the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) even more of what it wants. Kim will see himself as the dominant partner in the exchange, not the United States," the conservative publication writes.
"Moreover, by engaging in this diplomatic endgame, premised as it is on the idea that North Korea might willingly ‘denuclearize,' the administration implicitly signals that it might actually take the Kim regime at its word ...
"We hope the administration has not bought the delusion that Kim Jong Un would ever willingly divest himself of nuclear weapons. The whole self-identity of North Korean totalitarianism is rooted in nuclear capability … We doubt either Mike Pompeo, the incoming secretary of state, or John Bolton, the national security adviser, believes Kim will denuclearize. We're not at all confident the president does."
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