The Normalization of Meeting Kim Jong Un
Trump probably won’t convince the North Koreans to give up their nuclear weapons. But that doesn’t mean he has accomplished nothing.
It all started, as it often does these days, with a tweet from President Donald Trump: “I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” Thirty-two hours later, Trump shook hands with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and became the first sitting American president to step into North Korea.
It wasn’t always this way.
For decades, American or South Korean officials hoping to speak with North Korean officialshave faced a drawn-out, frustrating process. There are telephones, for example, on either side of the Joint Security Area between North
