BY JOHN SHAFFER President Trump's opening to North Korea may have advanced the cause of peace, and, just as Nixon may have been the only President who could have opened China, Mr. Trump may have been the only one who could have accomplished the North Korea initiative. The expectation is that if a leftish President, or an “establishment” President had done the reaching, there would have been an outcry from traditional anti-communist opinion; however, since it was done by a Republican, such opinion was muted or softened. It also took a Reagan to make a deal (and what effectively proved to be the final deal) with the Soviet Union. We presently are at a similar point in America’s dealings with North Korea: the “make America great again” President likely can get away with saying things and doing things that a Democrat President could not. The current thaw with North Korea could not have been predicted even a few short months ago, and we pray that President Trump does not let this success get the best of him. However, some of the things President Trump has said do not fill us with confidence. It is one thing to express some perfunctory conciliation for a foreign dictator, it is entirely something else to squeal and gush over him like a fan club. The President must keep in mind the cruelty, the brutality and the dishonesty that defines the North Korea Communist regime; how it oppresses, mistreats and distrusts its own people; how it operates a totalitarian dictatorship (and a family-based one); how it has threatened its neighbors, murdered its opponents; and seeks to destabilize other nations. Simply put – North Korea and Kim Jong Un cannot, and should not, be trusted. Euphoria might be fine in a political campaign, but a solid foreign policy needs the reflection of the cold light of dawn. Signing agreements or treaties with North Korea could be wonderful things, provided they keep their word, and that can be assured only with stringent verification procedures. We also must remember that the present North Korean regime would be a threat to peace even if it had no nuclear weapons. We must remain calm and clear-eyed and not be carried away by emotion. Bringing peace to the Korean peninsula still seems like a distant dream, but it is a considerably less distant one that it was a few weeks ago. But ignoring the history and behavior of the North Korea regime will not advance US interests
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