Kim Jong-un under new pressure at home after Trump summit shock
Always one to save face, Kim Jong-un reportedly exiled, imprisoned or executed 50 to 70 members of the country’s political elite last year, including opponents of his engagement with the US
Hanoi — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will have a long train ride home through China to think about what went wrong in his second summit with US President Donald Trump and how to keep it from reversing his gains of the past year. The Trump’s shock decision to walk away from nuclear talks on Thursday after hours of meetings in Vietnam raises new questions about Kim’s strategy for relieving the international sanctions squeezing his economy. The move potentially increases internal pressure on him to demonstrate he didn’t make a mistake by sitting down with the enemy. “Kim also invested a lot in the summit,” says Shin Beomchul, director at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies’ centre for security and unification. “Kim’s domestic political risk is also high.” The summit’s collapse reinforced the fundamental choice facing North Korea: negotiate with the US or force another nuclear crisis to improve its bargaining position. While it’s hard to know which path Kim will choose,...
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