Henry Kissinger has endorsed President Trump’s planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying he thinks Trump’s unique style was instrumental in facilitating it.
“The president has his own original style, and it’s unlikely to be changed at this stage of his life,” the former secretary of state told the New York Times. “But it also is conducive to bringing forward opportunities like this Korean conversation. It is not what we traditionalists would have recommended in the first place. . . . But I have to say, when I have thought it through, and how it could play out, it could restore a political initiative to us, and could compel a conversation with countries [who may not otherwise want one].”
The legendary foreign-policy adviser received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam. Between 1969 and 1977, Kissinger was instrumental in ending the Vietnam War, opening communication and diplomatic relations with China for the first time since 1949, and easing the pressure of the Cold War.
President Trump’s decision to accept the invitation from the rogue nation’s dictator surprised both his associates and South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha.
“We were all quite surprised by the readiness of that decision,” Kang Kyung-wha told CBS News on Sunday. “It was an extremely courageous decision on the part of President Trump. We believe the North Korean leader is now taking stock.”
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in was ecstatic at the the news of the meeting.
“This is an almost miraculous event. My administration will prepare toward the May meeting with utmost diligence,” he said.
Before agreeing to meet, the two leaders had threatened to destroy each other’s countries, and North Korea had conducted several flashy intercontinental-ballistic-missile tests, flexing the power of its nuclear program.
The sit-down will be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.