Singapore Summit and the Media’s Reaction

Singapore Summit and the Media’s Reaction

On June 12, 2018, President Donald J. Trump held a historic summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jung-un. Much has been said and written about the summit. This article will review the details of the summit by way of reviewing the media’s reaction to the summit. And predictably, that reaction has been almost all critical of every aspect of it.

The Background

A year ago, President Trump was calling Kim Jung-un “Little Rocket Man” and telling him if he continues to fire missile over Japan and towards Guam, the USA with react with “fire and fury like the world has never known.” When challenged on these statements, Trump double-downed, saying he hadn’t spoken strong enough.

The media went nuts. They were screaming Trump would start a nuclear war. But that was becasuse the media was used to the foreign policy of President Obama, which was one of appeasement of dictators and of bowing to foreign leaders, the while apologizing for the USA, trying to bring it down to the level of lesser countries.

In contradiction, Trump believes in the Reagan model of “peace through strength” and of course of “Making America Great Again.” The media still has not grasped the vast difference between these two attitudes and approaches. But it was in fact Trump’s rhetoric and dealing from a position of strength that brought Kim to the table.

The Menu

Believe it or not, MSNBC spent an extended amount of time discussing the menu for the dinner before the summit. Yes, the menu! That seemed to be the most important thing that this hate-Trump network could find to discuss and to criticize.

Their criticism was that Kim Jung-un was fed the most tasty and expensive foods possible while his people live in poverty, with barely enough to eat. But in this criticism, MSNBC and the rest of the hate-Trump media was missing the whole point of holding the summit in Singapore.

Singapore is one of the most prosperous nations on the planet, with one of the highest per capita GDPs of any nation. The reason it is so prosperous can be summed up in one word—freedom. Singapore has low taxation and low regulations. It is easier to start a business in Singapore than just about anywhere else in the world. And of course, it is a democracy, not a dictatorship.

Meanwhile, Kim dictator of one of the poorest nations on earth. That can easily be ascertained by looking at the nighttime satellite photo seen below (click for a a larger image):

Notice how the bottom half of the Korean peninsula (South Korea) is bright with lights, as is China to the north. But the area of North Korea (NoKo) is all dark. That is because NoKo is so backward it doesn’t even have an electrical grid.

No electricity means no modern conveniences, no refrigerators, no washing machines, no TVs, no central heating in the winter nor A/C in the summer, no Internet, and no lights. Everything we take for granted is not available to the average person in NoKo.

That might have been fine with Kim Jung-un’s father (Kim Jong-il) and grandfather (Kim Il-sung), but Kim Jung-un has been getting a taste of what life can be like outside of his little concave, unlike his father and grandfather who never left NoKo. As a result, he seems to not be satisfied with being the dictator of such an insignificance third-world country, and Trump wisely played into that dissatisfaction by holding the summit in Singapore. In that way, Kim could see what life could be like in his country, if he stopped his oppressive ways.

Trump cleverly played into this desire of Kim by playing a fake movie trailer prior to the summit for Kim. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here. This trailer showed Kim Jung-un what life could be like in his corner of the world, if he gives up his nuclear weapons. That would lead to the sanctions being removed and NoKo entering the world community, which would open the door to its prosperity.

The location, the fake movie trailer, and yes, the menu were all masterfully designed by Trump to play into Kims desire to rule over a prospering nation, not a land of squalor.

The Flags

The hate-Trump media was also having a fit over the USA flag and the NoKo flag both being displayed behind President Trump and Chairman Kim Jung-un when they first met and shook hands. The media’s attitude was this made it look like NoKo was equal to the USA, and that was “disgusting” as one MSNBC talking head put it.

But what did the media want, for only the USA flag to be displayed? When is that ever done? Anytime there is a meeting between two world leaders, the flags of both countries are displayed. When the President of the USA meets with President Emanuel Marcon of France, both the USA and the French flags are displayed. When the President of the USA meets with Prime Minister Theresa May of Great Britain, both flags are displayed. And when seven world leaders met for the G-7 Summit, all seven flags were displayed, all on an equal level.

And so it goes. Equal footing is given to each nation’s flag, as each nation likes to think it is the greatest nation on earth. None of them are of course, as that title only belongs to the USA. But if you want to get along with people from other countries, you have to humor them.

I’m being sarcastic here to make a point. To have only displayed the USA flag would have been an insult to NoKo and Kim Jung-un and derailed the summit. But of course, that is what the hate-Trump media wanted, for this summit to fail. No matter how disastrous that would have been for the USA and the world, as the media’s hatred for President Trump knows no bounds.

The Agreement

At the end of the summit, an agreement was signed by President Trump and Chairman Kim, and not unexpectedly, the hate-Trump media has been highly critical of the agreement. Their complaints are several-fold.

First, they say the agreement “lacks details.” No kidding. If this was the final draft of the treaty between the USA and NoKo, that would be a valid criticism, but it is not, far from it in fact. This was just the initial outline, the rough draft of where Trump and Kim are trying take our two countries.

It is like when I write an article like this one, or a book. I start with a title and rough idea of what I want to say, and then as I write, I fill in the details. That is what this initial agreement is. It is the rough idea of what the end product will be. The details will be filled over many months of negotiations between officials from NoKo and the USA, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The media has further been saying that the USA has gotten nothing from this agreement. It does include an agreement to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. But there is no mention of how that will be verified in the agreement. But again, this is just the first draft, the initial outline. Those critical details will be filled in as further negations progress.

Giving Credence to Kim Jung-un’s Regime

The media’s main criticism seems to be the general idea that by holding this summit, letting Kim have his picture taken with President Trump, having the NoKo and USA flags displayed together, and signing an agreement, all gave credence to the Kim Jung-un regime, and somehow that is a bad thing.

Yes, Kim’s regime, and more so those of his father and grandfather, have been murderous regimes that have oppressed their people immensely. It is becasuse of those actions that NoKo has remained outside of the mainstream of the rest of the nations of the world.

And yes, I would love to see Kim punished for his many crimes against his own people. But those atrocities would pale in comparison to the suffering and destruction that would result if Kim Jung-un fired off just one nuclear missile.

Leftist used to be anti-nukes, wanting to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But they seem now to have forgotten the incredible destruction that just nuclear weapon can cause. And of course, it would not be just one nuclear weapon. If Kim were to fire that first weapon, the USA would respond by turning NoKo into a wasteland. And that would lead to far more suffering for the NoKo people than they have experienced under Kim’s regime.

That is just the reality of the situation. But the best way to avoid a nuclear war with NoKo is to bring Kim Jung-un to the negotiation table, and that can only be accomplished by letting him think he is getting something out of it. If that be credence via a photo op with the President of the United States, so be it.

It is like a trade in baseball. The only way one happens is if both teams think they are getting the better end of the trade. Both team must think the players they are getting will benefit their team more than the players they are giving up.

In a baseball trade, that could prove to be the case. It could work out that the new players for each team will perform as expected and both teams will benefit. But more likely, time will show that one team got the better end of the stick. But the trade will only happen if both teams think that one team will be them. And so it is with an agreement between two national leaders. Both must think they are making the best deal for their country. That is just how negotiations work.

“Nothing in Return”

The media has been claiming that this “credence” was given to Kim Jung Un, while the USA got nothing in return. Nothing? Really? In the past few months the following has happened:

1.       Three USA hostages were released by NoKo.

2.       Kim has fired several hardline holdovers from his father’s regime.

3.       NoKo has not test fired any missiles for over seven months.

4.       NoKo’s main nuclear test site was destroyed.

5.       An agreement was made at the Summit for NoKo to return the remains of USA POW/ MIAs from the Korean War.

These points together show that Kim is serious about turning things around for NoKo and USA relations. Meanwhile, the USA has given up nothing of substance to this point. Even the sanctions against NoKo still remain in place and will do so until NoKo is in fact “completely denuclearized” as Secretary Pomeo put it.

“War Games”

The media has also been highly critical of President Trump proclaiming after the summit that the USA would stop the “War Games” the USA military has been conducting with the South Korean military. These have been going on for decades, ever since the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953 that ended the hostiles of the Korean War. Trump even declared that the War Games were “expensive” and “highly provocative.”

The media has been saying that the terms “War Games” and “provocative” is the language of NoKo and China, while the USA and South Korea usually refers to them as “military exercises” and consider them necessary.

First off, by using those terms, Trump was just recognizing the reality of the situation from Kim Jung-un’s and the North Korean people’s perspective. Those military exercises are proactive.

Just imagine if by where you lived enemy forces were moving troops and shooting off weapons. Would you feel provoked into feeling a need to protect yourself from a potential war? That is what those “games” are doing to North Koreans, leading them to accept the buildup of a nuclear arsenal by Kim Jung-un as being necessary. By stopping them, we are enabling the people of NoKo and Kim Jung-un to no longer feel a need for such an arsenal.

The media is also ignoring the fact that the USA military and South Korea just conducted its major military exercise last month, in May 2018. And that major exercise is only conducted once a year. As such, we will have eleven months to see what happens with this agreement. It if fails, we can easily restart the War Games and hold our major exercise next May. Nothing has been given up with this concession, except to let the North Korean people breathe a sigh of relief.

“We Will See What Happens”

President Trump has repeatedly said about the summit and resulting agreement, “We will see what happens.” He fully realizes that nothing might come of this summit; that Kim Jung-un might go back to his murderous ways and continue to fire off missiles. If that happens, the USA will respond accordingly.

Trump has even said that in six months he could be proven wrong, and nothing will come of this summit. But he is hopeful that will not be the case. He truly believes he and Kim have developed a relationship that will lead to more meetings between them, even to the point of Kim Jung-un visiting the USA.

Those meetings and the ongoing negotiations could lead to not just the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but to NoKo entering the mainstream of the world’s nations and becoming a more free and prosperous nation, which will be good for not just the NoKo people but the world in general. Who knows? It might even lead to the reunification of North and South Korea, just as the fall of the
Soviet Union led to the reunification of East and West Germany.

But that is all a long way off. In the meantime, I wish the media would tone down its rhetoric and criticism and wait and see what happens. This summit might prove to be a bust. But it just might not. It might be the start of a new era for relations between North Korea and the United States, and that is something we should all hope and pray happens, no matter how much you might hate President Trump.

Ratified as a Treaty

I will end this article with a final important point about this agreement. It relates to a criticism I had for Obama’s Iranian Nuclear Deal and the Paris Climate Accord—those were both unconstitutional treaties that were never ratified by the Senate.

President Trump promised before the Summit and again during his interview with Sean Hannity immediately after the Summit that when the final version of this agreement is reached, he will submit it to the Senate to be ratified. I have also heard some Senators say they want the final NoKo agreement to be submitted to the Senate to be ratified as an official treaty. That is in accordance with how the Constitution says treaties are to be ratified.

This point is important as if this agreement is to be a lasting agreement between NoKo and the USA, it needs to be ratified as a constitutional treaty not just be an executive agreement. If it is the latter, then the next President could cancel it, just as President Trump rightly canceled the aforementioned unconstitutional treaties by Obama. If that were to happen, we would be right back to square one and have to go through all of this all over again. That would not be good for the North Korean people, the USA, nor the world.

Sources:

The information for this article was obtained by this writer channel surfing between CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and Fox Business Network on the days before, on, and after the Summit, including Sean Hannity’s interview with President Trump on his TV show on Fox News immediately after the Summit, plus Sean Hannity’s and Rush Limbaugh’s radio shows at that time.

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The above article was posted on this website June 15, 2018.

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