How are you praying for the Hanoi Summit?

From The Washington Times: “Between December 2017 and February 2018, the world was on the verge of an armed confrontation which would have inevitably gone nuclear. I was in Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington during that period talking to the key decision-makers and the world was a hair-trigger away from war.

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There was talk of giving Mr. Kim a “bloody nose” by taking out a missile in flight, a launch site or launch vehicle, or merely “disappearing” one of the North’s submarines. Any or all of which would have given Mr. Kim little option but to launch a military response against Tokyo and Seoul. Pyongyang’s nuclear doctrine reflects weakness rather than strength, and as an upshot a wildly asymmetric balance of power. . . .

The world was a tweet away from nuclear war.

Mr. Trump’s bold offer of a summit dragged the Peninsula back from the brink. The subsequent Singapore Summit created a framework for a new era of peace and normalization of relations with the two sides embarking on denuclearization of the Peninsula and Pyongyang’s co-operation in the repatriation of remains of MIAs from the Korean War.

Nevertheless, it is plain that the last eight months have been a profound disappointment for both Washington and Pyongyang as commitments were unfulfilled. The promised “end of war” declaration was never made and the North waiting impatiently unsurprisingly refused to budge. Yet it stuck both by its promise of no testing and the continued production of nuclear weapons and ICBMs. In this year’s New Year’s address, Mr. Kim cued his continued engagement with a unilateral commitment to ending nuclear weapons production and proliferation. Hanoi provides the opportunity to reset the clock and move forward.

Almost more importantly, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim would agree to a process with a series of working groups reporting to future summits to ensure the process is continually shepherded forward.

There are twin dangers this will be frustrated in Washington. First, both leaders are well ahead of their respective administrations. Pyongyang has read both “Fear” and “I Am Part Of The Resistance Inside The Trump Administration” (New York Times, Sept. 5 2018), which is why they will need the constant reassurance and re-dedication provided by serial summits.” (Excerpted from “Why Trump is Right About North Korea” by Glyn Ford.)