What Went Wrong in Hanoi

Washington, DC

March 1, 2019

We asked a member of the American delegation to the recent summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un in Hanoi for his comments on why the two leaders failed to come to an agreement.  He asked that we not use his name – and that we emphasize that it definitely was not Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

-  It was not so much one moment, as a series of missteps.  That gift got things off to a really bad start.

-  What gift?

-  The President wanted to make a very personal gesture, so he decided to give Kim a set of golf balls with US and North Korean flags embossed on them.

-  That sounds like a nice idea.

-  It would have been if they had used the right flag.

-  No, you don’t mean that …

-  That’s right.  South Korean flags.  You see, the President put Don Jr. in charge of this.  Of course, official registers do not use “North” and “South” Korea, so he just assumed that South Korea would have “Democratic” in its name, so he went with the other one.

-  I’m surprised the North Koreans didn’t leave right away.

-  Actually, the President handled that deftly, only now he has committed to building a golf course somewhere near the North Korean-Russian border.

-  How did things go after that?

-  Not great.  Then the President and Chairman Kim had their private meeting.  This is when the President was supposed to try to show Kim a path on how North Korea could emerge from its isolation.

-  And?

-  According to the President, he spent most of the meeting asking Kim about all the ways he has had his enemies executed.

-  [Stunned silence]

-  Yeah.

-  But then there was the final meeting.

-  That’s right.  The discussion was moving rather tentatively, when the President asked if Chairman Kim had heard about the Cohen hearings.  Chairman Kim said he had.  The President asked Chairman Kim how he would have Cohen executed if Cohen was his former lawyer who was now ratting him out.  Chairman Kim said angrily, “Again with the executions,” then got up and left.

-  But what about the North Korean nuclear weapons program?

-  That’s a very good question.