President Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-Un runs the risk of being ‘more spectacle than substance’ as understaffed White House scrambles to prepare for summit by May
Trump-Kim meeting risk being ‘more spectacle than substance’, analysts say
White House too understaffed and inexperienced to turn it around in time
Trump administration need to carry out ‘a great deal of prep work’
President Trump almost immediately accepted Kim’s invitation to meet
DAILYMAIL.COM
9 March 2018
Lack of experienced staff in the White House threatens to derail plans for a productive meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim-Jong Un, analysts say.
President Trump’s understaffed administration may lack the expertise to successfully ensure that the meeting will be a meaningful opportunity to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
Pyongyang, known for hysterical displays of devotion to its dictator who has a penchant for boastful statements and military parades, is currently setting the agenda by way of being the ones offering the invitation to a talk.
Unless managed carefully by the White House, the meeting runs the risk of being ‘more spectacle than substance’, one analyst said.
South Korean officials said Friday Trump almost immediately agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, without preconditions, by the end of May.
Even proponents of a diplomatic approach towards North Korea worry the administration could be rushing into a summit with little time to prepare.
Such a summit – the first time sitting American and North Korean leaders have ever met – would typically happen after each side had made at least some concrete agreements, Ms DiMaggio a senior fellow at the New America think tank, who has engaged North Korean officials at unofficial discussions.
‘It will have to be managed carefully with a great deal of prep work,’ she said on Twitter.
‘Otherwise, it runs the risk of being more spectacle than substance. Right now, Kim Jong Un is setting the agenda and the pace, and the Trump administration is reacting. The administration needs to move quickly to change this dynamic.’
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has often been publicly contradicted by the White House over North Korea, including on Thursday when just hours before the announcement of a summit he said ‘we are a long ways from negotiations’.
Several experienced career diplomats occupy key positions in the Trump administration’s Korea and East Asia offices, but many of them are in an acting capacity while other positions are entirely empty.
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