Now Here Is Some Good News

[youngmafbog]

A long way to go and I am sure neither side trusts each other but dialogue is the way forward.

Well Done Donald and Kim.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6751275/Trump-Kim-Jong-share-handshake-join-second-meeting-Hanoi.html

[Zacs-Master]

Yeah. .....keep your enemies closer. Good tactic.

[agchristie]

'Our relationship is a very special relationship'

Blimey,is Kim ahead of May in the appreciation stakes!!

[jim360]

They were together in Singapore last year, and I think it's generally accepted now that that summit achieved little. I'm not optimistic for this one, either. But I would dearly love to be proven wrong on this. It certainly marks a massive turnaround from, say, two years back, when tensions were surely at their greatest point in decades.

[naomi24]

Jim, What a contradictory post.

//It certainly marks a massive turnaround from, say, two years back, when tensions were surely at their greatest point in decades. //

How then has nothing been achieved?

[youngmafbog]

jim probably meant "summit achieved little that was concrete". Which it didnt.

But small steps and jaw is better than war.

"keep your enemies closer. Good tactic."

Yes, it most certainly is.

[Spicerack]

Thank God that bellicose lunatic, Clinton, who's main sponsor was the military industrial complex, isn't in power.
I've no doubt the US would have gone to war with Russia by now. (not that we'd know too much about it)

[jim360]

Thanks, ymb, for clarifying my post. The summit *itself* achieved little, and, if anything, saw the US give away things that they really shouldn't have. Holding the summit is clearly an achievement, and holding a second one too is to be welcomed.

[ichkeria]

Two fat self obsessed autocrats with dodgy hair having a love-in.
I do agree that any contact is better than none but given the N Koreans, according to intelligence reports, had not followed up on their commitments on nuclear weapons, I’m not really setting much store by this.

[jim360]

Just to add to that, in case there is still lack of clarity, what matters is the outcome rather than the process. If this Summit (or, more to the point, all the diplomacy surrounding it) leads to North Korea stepping away from its nuclear programme, to the country's economy improving and to lasting peace in the region, then it would be a massive achievement for all parties concerned. But that is something that we will only properly be able to judge in years to come. My fear -- and I hope it's a reasonable one -- is that these summits are more about internal propaganda for Kim than they are about actually achieving such steps. If those fears are realised, then this would become Trump's "Munich Agreement" moment, rather than Trump's "Good Friday Agreement" moment. I am sure everybody here hopes it's the second one.

[ludwig]

There doesn't seem to be much substance to any of these meetings beyond it being a propaganda exercise for both of them.

[youngmafbog]

Better than the alternative Ludwig.

[hereIam]

Good on ya Mr Trump ..

[cassa333]

Talks with NK were always going to be slow.

There is very little trust between either side and I imagine there will be plenty of useless meetings and turnarounds. But there is dialogue which in anyone’s money is a good thing.

[ludwig]

// Trump-Kim summit breaks down over sanctions //

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47398974

[jim360]

Yes, seems that this second summit didn't lead to anything much in the end. But from the sounds of things that's because Kim was making unreasonable demands and Trump chose, quite reasonably, not to meet them.