Next steps with Kim
U.S. and North Korea have to keep talking
There were ups and downs to the series of summits between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Their 1986 meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, began more positively than anyone had expected but ended in disappointment, partly because of an impasse over Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative.
The leaders kept trying, and their continued dialogue contributed to improved relations between the two superpowers. It’s impor- tant to keep that kind of long-term view in mind on the heels of President Donald Trump’s disappointing meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, last week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The U.S. says the talks broke down because Mr. Kim sought the lifting of all economic sanctions in return for the dismantling of one nuclear facility; North Korea said it sought only the end of some sanctions and couldn’t get the U.S. to budge. In the aftermath, each party had harsh words for the other, just as the Reagan and Gorbachev governments traded barbs when things didn’t go well at their meetings.
The U.S. and North Korea agreed to keep communicating. They also agreed that North Korea would continue to honor a 16-month-long ban on ballistic and nuclear missile testing. That is a marked improvement over relations earlier in Mr. Trump’s term, when North Korea conducted provocative missile tests, Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and Mr. Kim vowed to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”
South Korea is continuing its own productive dialogue with Mr. Kim, and that also is a hedge against North Korean retrenchment.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim now can return to their respective capitals and reevaluate their positions. Mr. Kim’s intransigence signaled how severely U.S. sanctions are hurting him, and there is leverage to be gained from that. Mr. Trump also may be able to exert pressure through China, which long has been North Korea’s lifeline but has an incentive now to avoid an escalating trade war with the U.S.
There still are dangerous waters ahead. North Korea has a large nuclear arsenal, and as a North Korean defector and former diplomat told The New York Times in a story last week, there is the risk of Mr. Kim selling his nuclear technology for much-needed cash.
The Soviet threat once seemed just as intractable.
While many factors contributed to the collapse of communism, the Reagan-Gorbachev dialogue certainly contributed. In December 1987, a little more than a year after the disappointment and hurt feelings at Reykjavik, Reagan and Gorbachev met in Washington and signed the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It contributed to peace for 30 years.