Could a Donald Trump presidency accomplish with North Korea today what a Ronald Reagan presidency did with the Soviet Union in the 1980s or what a Richard Nixon presidency did with China in the 1970s?
It’s a long shot, you’d have to concede, but enticing the dictatorship to give up its nuclear arsenal would be a strategic global coup of little modern parallel.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves that we’re anywhere near such a momentous occurrence, though. To date, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said only that he is willing to discuss his nukes with the United States, has agreed to meet with South Korea’s president next month, and has shown a willingness to suspend nuclear and missile tests during such talks.
Nevertheless, that’s a huge step. On the other hand, North Korean leaders have made promises before, promising denuclearization in 1994 during the Clinton administration and again in 2005 under the George W. Bush administration, only to back off both times.
Trump, like Reagan with the Soviet Union and Nixon with China before him, would be the last statesman you would expect to make a rapprochement with the East Asia country. After all, he’s blustered about the country’s moves since he took office in 2017, has seemed to threaten military action and even began calling its leader “Little Rocket Man.” Democrats and the leftist national press were so incensed, they accused him of trying to start a war.