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Big Moment, Big Progress

Dr. Munr Kazmir
4 min readJul 2, 2019

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U.S. President Donald Trump visits North Korea. Is this the beginning of the end for North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un?

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un, makes history Sunday, June 30, 2019, as he becomes the first sitting U.S. President to step foot on North Korean soil, in his meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

It was a move that sent both administrations scrambling.

It was a far cry from the usual meticulously planned and executed meeting of two heads of state; one of whom the leader of a nationalistic isolationist state with nuclear ambitions and delusions of grandeur, the other one North Korea’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un.

Instead, it was a meeting that seemed to be arranged on a whim- Trump’s- and extended via social media. What is perhaps even more surprising, is that such an invitation was accepted.

Trump, for his part, had very little to lose with such a move, whether it was really spontaneous or not. If Trump received any interest from Pyongyang, even openness to a future meeting, he could have claimed the unorthodox diplomatic gambit a success.

That Kim accepted his meeting has, let’s say, certain benefits for the Trump campaign. But also for the Korean Peninsula. And the world.

Democrats, predictably, aren’t impressed with what they insist amounts to little more than a photo op for the two leaders. In a historic step, Trump became the first U.S. President to set foot in North Korea. The two leaders shook hands, exchanged greetings, then met privately…

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