{"id":99104,"date":"2018-06-18T21:50:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T03:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/parker-nukes-for-condos-in-north-korea\/"},"modified":"2018-06-18T21:50:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T03:50:50","slug":"parker-nukes-for-condos-in-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/parker-nukes-for-condos-in-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker: Nukes for condos in North Korea?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Parker\"
Parker<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The visuals, we witnessed; the lies we infer \u2013 from experience, history and redundant prescience.<\/p>\n

But the summit was definitively historic. Let us count the ways.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, the unlikeliest president in U.S. history, traveled to Singapore to meet with the leader of North Korea, which no other American president has done (for excellent reasons), and hand-delivered to Kim Jong Un \u2013 an untrustworthy, murdering, torturing, enslaving, nuclearized global menace who starves his people and regularly threatens the U.S. and its allies \u2013 what he covets most.<\/p>\n

Trump gave him power.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, as you say, Mr. President, that you\u2019ve done what no other would. You\u2019ve traded American authority and legitimized a petty provocateur. For what? For the possibility, as you suggested, of a beachfront hotel overlooking the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan or, in the event of a peaceful reunification with South Korea, the East China Sea?<\/p>\n

But for the minor matter of trademarks, Ivanka\u2019s swimsuits are sure to be a hit.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019d love to be mistaken. I\u2019m not lobbying for failure, but there\u2019s little reason to believe that Kim will honor Trump\u2019s expectations \u2013 or vice versa. The so-called agreement includes nothing substantive to justify optimism \u2013 no defining terms of what denuclearization would look like, no outline for verification, not even a timeline.<\/p>\n

All we have is Trump\u2019s assurance that Kim is a really good guy, which former NBA star Dennis Rodman already told us; that Kim is \u201cvery talented,\u201d meaning God-knows-what, though certainly he\u2019s a visionary when it comes to coiffure. Lest we overlook Rodman\u2019s imperious role in North Korean relations his presence in Singapore wearing a PotCoin T-shirt is being credited for the cryptocurrency\u2019s sudden surge.<\/p>\n

As though June 12, 2018, needed a cartoonish flourish.<\/p>\n

Thus far, it appears that the U.S. is allegedly giving more than it\u2019s allegedly getting. In addition to Trump agreeing to end what he called the \u201cprovocative\u201d and \u201ctremendously expensive\u201d military exercises in the region, he also mentioned removing some 30,000 U.S. troops from South Korea, delivering a win to China and, seemingly, surprising U.S. military leadership in Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We have) received no updated guidance on execution or cessation of training exercises, to include this fall\u2019s scheduled Ulchi Freedom Guardian,\u201d U.S. Forces in Korea spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Lovett said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Translation: What did he just say?!<\/p>\n

The devil, as always, is in the propaganda \u2013 a four-minute video, styled like a movie trailer, that Trump showed Kim in which the two leaders are presented as world saviors.<\/p>\n

And the art of the deal in this case is in keeping with Trump\u2019s narcissistic personality disorder. He views the world through the lens of his own self-interest.<\/p>\n

Thus, Trump tried to tempt Kim with his real estate developer\u2019s perspective. Explaining to reporters later, he said: \u201cThey have great beaches. You see that whenever they are exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said, \u2018Boy look at that view.\u2019 Wouldn\u2019t that make a great condo? \u2026 I said, \u2018Instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s undeniable logic to this approach, even if it could benefit Trump directly. Aggressive nuke-mongering and tourism tend not to mix well. A great, big beautiful hotel or condo building \u2013 or dozens \u2013 bearing the name Trump could help resuscitate North Korea\u2019s lifeless economy. And the rest of the world could exhale.<\/p>\n

While some nations have issued congratulatory post-summit statements at absolutely no risk to themselves, others such as Iran were more circumspect.<\/p>\n

Said Iranian spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht: \u201cWe don\u2019t know what type of person the North Korean leader is negotiating with. It is not clear that he (Trump) would not cancel the agreement before returning home\u201d \u2013 a caveat not lacking in merit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency stands at the ready to begin verification activities as warranted. Trump, too, has promised to stay on top of the deal, telling reporters: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to check it. We will check it. Total and complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is just super awesome, Mr. President.<\/p>\n

And if the deal should collapse any minute now?<\/p>\n

Trump is prepared for that, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may be wrong,\u201d he said to reporters. \u201cI mean I may stand before you in six months and say, \u2018Hey I was wrong.\u2019 I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever admit that, but I\u2019ll find some kind of an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed. Total and complete, exploding cannons and all.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture for The Washington Post. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary In 2010. Reach her at kathleenparker@washpost.com<\/a>. \u00a9 2018 The Washington Post Writers Group<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parkerdu1-i-syn The visuals, we witnessed; the lies we infer \u2013 from experience, history and redundant prescience. But the summit was definitively historic. Let us count the ways. Donald Trump, the unlikeliest president in U.S. history, traveled to Singapore to meet with the leader of North Korea, which no other American president has done (for excellent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5758,6321],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-columnists-kathleen-parker","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99104"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}