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Trump Cancels Singapore Summit With North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un (cnbc.com) 504

President Donald Trump has cancelled his much anticipated meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that was scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12, he announced moments ago. In a letter to Kim, the president said; "I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger an open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter to serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place." He added, "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."
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Trump Cancels Singapore Summit With North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:12AM (#56665290)

    It's in trumps style of negotiation. He's always going to go for the BEST deal that he can get, and this is not at all out of the ordinary for Trump.

    Back when it was first announced, Scott adams almost immediately said "expect one of them, probably trump, to walk away at least once before any actual negotiations take place".

    Fun to see these types of negotiating dynamics playing out on the world stage.

    • by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:41AM (#56665530)
      Trump is just saying this to save face because he fucked up putting a hell of a feather in his cap. He screwed the pooch on his demands, especially since we're showing a clear pattern of overthrowing any leader who appeases us.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          If Un gets overthrown, in my opinion it won't be because he screwed up negotiations with the U.S. His military is just as demented and believing in fictions as he (so I guess Trump and Kim are even on that score). I think if Un gets overthrown it will be because his military decide they have more fear of him sawing off their heads than they have of the U.S. attacking. They know they have S. Korea as hostage, and regardless of any negotiations that happen or fail to happen, they won't be giving that up for s

    • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:08AM (#56665784)

      It's in trumps style of negotiation. He's always going to go for the BEST deal that he can get, and this is not at all out of the ordinary for Trump.

      Back when it was first announced, Scott adams almost immediately said "expect one of them, probably trump, to walk away at least once before any actual negotiations take place".

      Fun to see these types of negotiating dynamics playing out on the world stage.

      Did Adams also predict that Trump's newly chosen underling would "accidentally" scuttle the negotiations [washingtonpost.com]? (Causing Trump a loss of face in the process)

      Trump isn't the one calling the shots here, the South Koreans arranged the summit they had zero expectation of succeeding because they didn't want Trump to start a war instead, and North Korea agreed to the summit because they wanted the photo op with the US President and all the flowery praise that Trump has been giving them the past few weeks (plus sanction relief if they could weasel it).

      But Bolton wanted the summit to go away because North Korea is a country, and he likes invading countries. And so the summit that would never accomplish anything is at least temporarily dead and the really unlikely stupid war is slightly more likely and still just as stupid.

    • Had the meeting gone as scheduled, he would have said it was brilliant and just as Trump had planned. Adams worships the ground that Trump walks upon and has convinced himself that all democrats are demon scum. Trump is incapable of doing any wrong in Adams' eyes.

      Coincidentally, remember when Dilbert was last funny? It was a fair bit before the 2016 elections. Now it's just Mallard Fillmore in an office; often forgetting the punch lines as well.
      • Had the meeting gone as scheduled, he would have said it was brilliant and just as Trump had planned. Adams worships the ground that Trump walks upon and has convinced himself that all democrats are demon scum. Trump is incapable of doing any wrong in Adams' eyes.

        And Adams revealed why in his latest book. He spent the first 3/4's of it trying to explain logically why Trump was using good 'persuasion' techniques (also know as sales tricks) to win the presidency, then near the end lets loose a tirade against Hillary for wanting to tax the richest of the rich (the over $5M bracket) an inheritance tax which like Trump goes off the script. Adams is the classic greedy rich white guy story. I earned lots of money so I deserve to keep it all to myself and not pay tax even t

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Childish, but that seems to be the level politics is made at today.

    • Correct. Worked for a car dealer for a couple of summers while in college, and the only negotiating tactic I saw that worked well was walking away. The car salesmen are at a huge advantage since they negotiate car sales several times a week, and they know all of the tricks. Walking away takes away all of their power.

  • All he had to do is keep his mouth shut and let South Korea do the heavy lifting... But noooooo....

    • by i_ate_god ( 899684 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:15AM (#56665334)

      It wasn't Trump, it was Pence and Pompeo who threatened North Korea with a Libyan outcome.

      These people are neophytes on the world stage and it shows.

      • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:21AM (#56665390)

        It wasn't Trump, it was Pence and Pompeo who threatened North Korea with a Libyan outcome.

        A distinction without a difference. Trump wants to play emperor then he gets to take responsibility for what happens on his watch too. Not just the bits he likes.

        • by haruchai ( 17472 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:47AM (#56665582)

          "Trump wants to play emperor then he gets to take responsibility for what happens on his watch too. Not just the bits he likes"

            "The buck stops here" sign has a quite different meaning when it's on Trump's desk
            #TrumpIsNotTruman

        • by Thud457 ( 234763 )
          Don't forget this week's National Security advisor John Bolton prattling on about the "Libya model".
          "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action"
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by kenh ( 9056 )

        It wasn't Trump, it was Pence and Pompeo who threatened North Korea with a Libyan outcome.

        Threatened? No, predicted.

        Speaking in May 21 interview on Fox News, Pence said the reclusive regime could end up like the North African country "if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal."

        Source [cnbc.com]

        • I guess I meant Bolton. Who can keep up with the revolving door at the white house these days anyways.

          > Separately, new US National Security Advisor John Bolton told Fox News that an agreement with Libya on eliminating its weapons of mass destruction programme could serve as a model for a North Korea deal.

          That is an implicit threat.

          • by kenh ( 9056 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @01:21PM (#56666898) Homepage Journal

            No, it isn't - what is the Libya Model? The Lybia model isn't surround yourself with female body guards, torture your citizens, and let your kids kill your country's citizens without restraint. Libya was hell on earth, the locals brought down the government and the US helped.

            But that isn't what Bolton was referring to - Libya Model is to demand absolute, verified shutdown of nuclear development, no exceptions.

            THAT is the Libyan Model any sane person would understand Bolton was talking about.

            Bolton was referring to the need to build trust and verify any denuclearization efforts when he brought up Libya in a CBS interview last month. He didn’t imply, publicly at least, that the “Libya model” would include regime change in North Korea.

            Source [washingtonpost.com]

        • Please, look up the word implication

      • by chill ( 34294 )

        You forgot John Bolton.

      • Re:For God's sake.. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ( 4475953 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:19AM (#56665888)

        Don't forget that John Bolton is there now, too. The White House is full of dangerous, hypocritical lunatics. It's worse than under George W. Bush, and he had mighty bad advisers.

    • All he had to do is keep his mouth shut and let South Korea do the heavy lifting... But noooooo....

      Right because if there is one thing Trump is good at it's keeping his mouth shut.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bobbied ( 2522392 )

      All he had to do is keep his mouth shut and let South Korea do the heavy lifting... But noooooo....

      South Korea doing the heavy lifting? Please...

      The guy in charge down south is so bent on peace at any price that he's almost just giving Kim everything, including control of South Korea. The leader of South Korea just ran a campaign on this issue and has HUGE political pressure to show results, any kind of results. They are in no mood to lift anything, heavy or not over there.

      Kim is really the one who's responsible for this. Kim has been ratcheting up the rhetoric. He's been saying stupid stuff about

      • Kim is really the one who's responsible for this. Kim has been ratcheting up the rhetoric. He's been saying stupid stuff about Trump, Pompano and Pence even. I personally think that Kim is afraid of a revolt if he is out of the country for too long with any advance warning

        There are people in North Korea who don't want to end the war. These are the people who have believed the propaganda (that N Korea is powerful enough to fight against the US and win, that N Koreans are 'pure', etc. If those are your beliefs, then negotiating is illogical).

        Kim has to balance all the various factions in his government. To me, he seems to want peace. He's been outside the country, he knows how it is. He knows things can be a lot better, but not everyone in North Korea agrees. In the past vi

    • I am confused by your statement. Kim had bellicose language for the annual military drills that were explicitly stated would continue until a deal was reached just as the sanctions would stay in place. There was some concessions by removing the B-52 bombers (nuclear capable) from the exercise but the language continued. Kim started insulting South Korea as weak. And your response is "let South Korea do the heavy lifting" after Kim called them weak and ineffective? Do you really think any kind of peace can b

    • by Rolgar ( 556636 )

      Why did Moon Jae-in say that Trump is the one to credit with getting Kim to agree to talks in the first place?

      https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]

    • There's the people who think it's Trump's genius double secret negotiating prowess. There's the people who think Trump (and maybe moreso his people) royally fucked up an historic opportunity.

      Am I the only one who has been convinced the whole time there's nothing to fuck up in the first place? There has never been a reason for them to denuclearize under terms we'd accept. We barely did anything to cause this massive shift in Kim's stance—it was inexplicable. This has all the hallmarks of a feint
      • by ( 4475953 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:39AM (#56666078)

        That's not what's going on.

        Kim and his advisers came to the conclusion that Trump and his advisers were looking for an occasion for a limited war - some bombing campaign - somewhere in the world. Ideally, the campaign would take place before the mid term elections. The US military was tasked to look into either bombing some nuclear facilities in NK or bombing some nuclear facilities in Iran. Kim and his advisers came to this conclusion and quickly contacted SK to prevent this from happening, because they know very well that the NK could not possibly defend their territory at all and judge that Trump is crazy enough to not care about possible consequences for South Korea.

        Moon came to the same conclusion and quickly arranged this initiative together with Kim to prevent the worst from happening. Bear in mind that NK could shell Seoul, population 10 million, plus another 10 million in the area, and even if the artillery is quickly taken care of by air superiority, the death toll would be massive. At the same time Moon is under serious pressure from the US, so he had to include the US despite the fact that Trump is considered a negative factor by both parties. (Trump is considered an annoyance and hard to deal with by essentially every politician in the world, including Moon and Kim, of course.)

        Here is what's going to happen: NK and SK will continue with peace talks and friendship initiatives no matter what the US does, for at least as long as Trump is in charge. Neither of them wants war, and even the smallest military action would make an escalation almost unavoidable in the current situation.

  • by Idou ( 572394 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:15AM (#56665328) Journal
    and then there is Kim Jong Un to worry about . . .
    • From a game theory point of view, a madman is the best player vs. Un, if you want to reach a productive agreement. A player that the other side does not trust to be rational, is one that can force the other side's hand.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:53AM (#56665642) Homepage Journal

      Kim is playing him like a fiddle. Now Trump looks like the bad guy, unwilling to make concessions or pull back from his brinkmanship.

      Give it a while and Kim will keep talking to the south, making progress and setting himself up as the good guy for the post-dictatorship period he knows is coming.

    • by Ami Ganguli ( 921 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:25AM (#56665950) Homepage

      If we survive (and I think we have a decent chance), we might actually look on this as a positive turning point.

      Europeans have, for various historical reasons, been unwilling to stand up the United States for the past 70 years. Sometimes they've tut-tutted loudly, but in general they've let the US get away with whatever they wanted. Now it's become abundantly clear that you can't give anybody a free pass that way.

      During the Bush II years there was already rumbling, mostly centered around Iraq. Then Obama came, and he made the US seem sane again. Now the world's only superpower has gone completely insane.

      Democracy is a great thing, but it means you can't trust any country to be consistently sane, and you need to structure your institutions and foreign policy accordingly.

  • by vague disclaimer ( 861154 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:19AM (#56665372)
    Played like a cheap violin.
    • by Rolgar ( 556636 )

      You can't win if your opponent doesn't think you're willing to stick with the status quo.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:22AM (#56665396)
    in much the same I cancel dates with hot girls I met on the street.
  • BINGO! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:23AM (#56665400)

    BINGO! I win my Donald Trump bingo.

    Pulls out of Paris. Messes up with Iran. Get's his ass handed to him by Russians in Syria. NK summit fails... that completes my line across the middle.

  • This must be part of Trumps 4D chess move to win a Nobel Peace prize.
    • It is. Trump now has the upper hand. Kim needs the US a lot more than the US needs him.

      • lolwut?

        North Korea's biggest trade partners are China, India and Pakistan (mostly China). Sure, they'd like removal of a lot of the trade sanctions, but there's almost certainly little effort by China to enforce most of those trade sanctions.

      • by Jeremi ( 14640 )

        It is. Trump now has the upper hand. Kim needs the US a lot more than the US needs him.

        Really? What does Kim need the US for?

    • This must be part of Trumps 4D chess move to win a Nobel Peace prize.

      Maybe Kim gets the peace prize because he demolished his test site and pushed for talks... the other side dropped them.

      Kim for peace prize?

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:31AM (#56665442)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by penandpaper ( 2463226 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:31AM (#56665992) Journal

      So I think that he indeed added this as he did not understand that the first part already said the same thing,

      I don't think so. The first phrase, as you say, is stern, calm and diplomatic. It's the 'why'. The second is not only a warning but tells Kim how we view ourselves: We fear our own power. I am not sure if Kim fears nuclear weapons the same as we do but regardless it opens the door for hope because in that fear we will work for peace. It also gives Kim a different understanding of "bigger button that works". Can he comprehend a nuclear capability to be actually afraid of using it?

    • "Ok, ok but hang on, let me add couple lines here".
  • It's typical Trump to make this announcement now.
    Presently there is a whole slew of foreigners in North Korea to witness the demolition of the old and useless nuclear test site.
    Trump should have waited till most of them were in safety, Kim is crazy enough to keep (some of) them hostage.
  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:39AM (#56665510)

    This is yet another negotiation tactic, because NK was starting to believe they could get a lot of concessions form the U.S.- Trump here is just letting NK in no way will they be able to keep nuclear weapons.

    NK will fold soon ad the talks will be back on.

  • I think I've finally figured out why we're getting more and more stories like this on Slashdot. Politicizing the site is a sure way to generate more and more traffic as even long-time members get sucked into pointless, lengthy political debates. The process has been aided and abetted by commenters who seem to have come out of nowhere with multiple accounts and a willingness to abuse the "Anonymous Coward" feature.

    This kind of story is money in the bank, because it is certain to foster pointless debate ove

  • by TheDarkener ( 198348 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @12:27PM (#56666450) Homepage

    Here we go again with the penis wars.

    It depresses me to no end that the leaders of nations act so much like petty school children.

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @02:50PM (#56667752)

    There was once a time where America pulling out of a deal, trade talk, summit, etc was a deathspell. The world looked to America for everything. A very very interesting change has happened in the past 2 years.

    America pulls out of the Paris Agreement. Rather than killing it off, it spurred the last 2 remaining countries to join.
    America pulls out of the TPP, and agreement it lead and created. This killed the agreement. It can't be rattified without the USA. ... Except all the parties just copied and pasted all the bits not requiring the USA and the newly named CPTPP lives on.
    America pulls out of its agreement with Iran, an agreement it was instrumental in creating. The world collectively shrugged with all parties continuing to abide by the agreement.

    A lot of people are talking about how America is being laughed at, whereas the reality appears far worse than that.

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