Kim’s long train ride home, after an essentially unsuccessful summit, may give him time for regrets
Always one to save face, Kim Jong-un reportedly exiled, imprisoned or executed 50 to 70 members of the country’s political elite last year, including opponents of his engagement with the USHanoi — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will have a long train ride home through China to think about what went wrong in his second summit with US President Donald Trump and how to keep it from reversing his gains of the past year.
The summit’s collapse reinforced the fundamental choice facing North Korea: negotiate with the US or force another nuclear crisis to improve its bargaining position. While it’s hard to know which path Kim will choose, a hard-line approach risks plunging him back into the diplomatic isolation he experienced before an unprecedented year of summits and red-carpet receptions.
The summits have played well at home for Kim, with his state media trumpeting him as being on equal footing with the leader of the world’s richest country Still, Kim faces his own time pressure to escape a US-led campaign that has helped push his already impoverished country into its deepest recession in two decades, according to the South Korean central bank. North Korean diplomats say talks broke down after the US refused to support lifting sanctions imposed since 2016 in exchange for dismantling its aging Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Although the inner workings of North Korean politics are shrouded in secrecy, continued hardship could bolster those who favour a more confrontational approach toward the US. Kim exiled, imprisoned or executed 50 to 70 members of the country’s political elite last year, including opponents of engagement with the US, according to a report published last week by the North Korea Strategy Centre, a Seoul-based research institution founded by a former defector.
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