re: Surprise! Donald Trump is terrible at diplomacy. - WaPo - Update: FT Still Right

Easy. Sorry if I didn’t reply earlier.

A win, in this case, is threefold.

1) Go heavily into the TPP, alienating China from their neighbors and making the United States the preferred trading partner in the region. This limits China’s ability to pressure North Korea or make overtures to other nations.

2) Once the nations in the region and our partners recognize that the United States is the trading partner to have, over China, you demand that North Korea cease testing of missiles and allow inspectors in. You offer a carrot; a way to be closer to the United States and South Korea than they are to China. You make moves with private companies to open factories and farms in North Korea. If they slip up, the people have gotten a taste of a market they’ve never seen. It destabilizes North Korea, and incentivizes real inspections and transparency, lest Kim lose his hold on the nation and his godlike status with the people.

3) When the above have been done, you’ve shattered the status quo. The people will have had access to the West in a way that always works. We win consistently when the people are eating at McDonald’s, wearing Levis, and fed up with how things used to be. He’s faced with a situation that requires winning a civil war, or at least massive unrest, or capitulation.

What we did instead:

1) Have a meeting with no preconditions.

2) Cancel military exercises.

3) Legitimize Kim in the eyes of his people, with nothing to show for it. Even the haters and losers are arguing that this is only the beginning. It is the beginning, and we began by giving away very valuable propaganda and military preparedness in exchange for a promise North Korea always gives and has never followed through with.