Editor's Pick of the Day: Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump to meet
What can possibly happen when an ex-Reality TV star turned US President with a penchant for snappy phrases like "Little Rocket Man" and comical threats promising "Fire and Fury" meets with an enigmatic counterpart? A counterpart who has given himself multiple titles like the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army?
What can possibly happen when these two one-of-a-kind men collide? We are talking about American President Donald J Trump and North-Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Right at the onset, let us try to figure why this meeting is so important for North Korea. For one, the chance to occupy the same stage as an American President has been a matter of great prestige for North Korean leaders and both the father and the grandfather of Kim Jong-un struggled to accomplish this feat and failed because of their persistence to continue with their nuclear programme and unwillingness to go with the US's insistence upon denuclearisation.
President Jimmy Carter did meet with Kim Il Sung, Kim's grandfather, in 1994 but not much came of it, while former President Bill Clinton met Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, after he left office in 2009. But while he was in power Bill Clinton had sent Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for a meeting in 2000 with Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong-Il . A gesture that North-Korea considered to be an open snub.
When George W. Bush came into power, he froze the negotiations that had been initiated by Clinton and Albright and even went as far as calling the country a part of an “axis of evil” in 2002.
President Barack Obama never got to the point of believing that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons and refused to react to what he called was "provocative behaviour" . What he was referring to were the occasional, immature threats that North Korea issued to both the US and South Korea.