Trump and Kim Jong Un: Let’s Make a Deal

Posted: March 29th, 2018

By Richard Boucher

Ambassador Richard Boucher served 32 years at the U.S. Department of State, including roles as Ambassador to Cyprus, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, and Spokesman for six different Secretaries of State. After retiring from the State Department, Boucher spent almost four years as Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Boucher currently teaches at Brown University, focusing on the intersection between diplomacy and economics.

President Donald Trump has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un and the other players, China and North Korea, are preparing. The question is: How should Trump prepare for the meeting? Experts find a number of reasons to be skeptical about this abrupt announcement, especially the lack of lower-level preparation for a summit, the difficulty of verifying any results, and the question of giving the North Korean leader recognition without compensation.

However, there are also reasons to believe this may be a good move. In any case, we can learn from the pitfalls that plague any decision like this to understand what kind of deal we should make.

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