Barack Obama left no bigger mess behind than the North Korean nuclear menace.
Kim Jong Un routinely pushed the world to the edge of thermonuclear war.
But one secret meeting in North Korea just changed everything.
Over Easter weekend, CIA Director – and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea and met with Kim Jong Un.
The extraordinary mission was kept secret and was conducted to set the table for the historic summit between Donald Trump and the North Korean dictator.
The Washington Post reports:
“CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as an envoy for President Donald Trump to meet with that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, according to two people with direct knowledge of the trip.
The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most trusted emmisaries and the authoritarian head of a rogue state was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because of the highly classified nature of the talks.
The clandestine mission, which has not previously been reported, came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state.
“I’m optimistic that the United States government can set the conditions for that appropriately so that the president and the North Korean leader can have that conversation will set us down the course of achieving a diplomatic outcome that America so desperately – America and the world so desperately need,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week during his confirmation hearing.”
Trump tweeted that the meeting went well and the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula is on the agenda.
Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
This bombshell came on the heels of the announcement that North and South Korea are entering talks to formally end the Korean War.
Technically, the armistice never ended the conflict which was fought from 1950 to 1953.
But this agreement represents a major thawing out in relations between the two neighbors.
Trump deserves the credit for this major step towards peace.
Unlike Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, he directly pressured North Korea and choked their economy with sanctions to bring them to the bargaining table.
Obama and other Presidents were content to kick the can down the road and leave the problem to someone else.
Thankfully, that someone was Donald Trump—whose policies and ability to stick to his vision while the media whipped up hysterics about a World War III has brought the opportunity to strike an historic peace deal.
Do you agree?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
