Stephan: Here is some excellent news. However, I don't think what you see and the story line is the full picture.
This is what I think is going on: North and South Korea have both decided, although for very different reasons, that it is in their national interest to reach a peace treaty. It has nothing to do with Trump, in fact they are playing him like a violin. They want the U.S. not to interfere. So through the North's nuclear program they got Trump on board. For them it was geopolitical theater.
They know Trump will try to take the credit, and they don't care. The South wants to demilitarize, and create trade with their neighbor encouraging the growth of a North Korean middle class, who will spend billions in the south, and generate millions of job. The North, which is to say Kim, wants to be assured that he will stay in power, and there will be two countries. The only thing I can think of in the West that is roughly analogous is the Irish border.
The good news for the world is that tensions go down, and wellbeing increases.
Kim took those few historic steps ahead of a major summit with South Korean president Moon Jae-in. Kim and Moon both crossed over into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the North and South for a handshake — broadcast live — before their official meeting at the Peace House, in the South Korean border village of Panmunjom.
Kim Jong Un walked across the border into South Korean-controlled territory on Friday, the first time a North Korean leader has stepped foot on South Korean soil since the end of the Korean War more than a half-century ago.
Kim took those few historic steps ahead of a major summit with South Korean president Moon Jae-in. Kim and Moon both crossed over into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the North and South for a handshake — broadcast live — before their official meeting at the Peace House, in the South Korean border village of Panmunjom.
The ceremonial handshake presages a much more monumental announcement that could come out of the summit: a […]
I predict that part of the deal with the U.S. will be to severely minimize our military presence in South Korea despite strenuous objections from Japan, Taiwan, and NATO. Given his nationalistic tendencies, Trump may even agree–further reducing the US’s global influence…