Experts in Waterloo Region showing little optimism over Trump/Kim meeting

Critics are concerned U-S President Donald Trump may have made too many concessions at his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

They are most alarmed about Trump’s stunning, seemingly offhand comment that he says he wants to remove the 28,500 American troops stationed in the South as a deterrent against North Korean attack and end the annual war games.

Meantime, local experts believe the meeting didn’t accomplish much at all.

Dr. Barry Kay, a political sciences professor at Wilfrid Laurier University says he’s hopeful, but not optimistic.

“Trump wants to create the illusion of something significant having happened, and it may,” he said, “I don’t want to say it can’t (have) happened but it hasn’t happened yet.”

“Kim wants to have the recognition of meeting the most powerful leader in the world without having given up very much other than promising to (denuclearize), someday.”

He says the track record from Kim’s father and grandfather, both former North Korean leaders themselves, isn’t particularly promising.

Meantime, Simon Palamar is a research fellow on Global Security and Politics at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo.

He says the simple fact they met is positive, but it didn’t break much ground.

“If everybody was hoping this was going to be the breakthrough, and we’re going to get a detailed plan and we’re going to see an immediate cessation possibilities on the Korean peninsula, that’s not going to happen,” Palamar said.

Both Kay and Palamar add we’ve seen this narrative before in the early 90’s with former President Bill Clinton.

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