Trump In Singapore

John Feffer

The scheduled US–North Korea summit is just days away. Here's a look at where things stand.

North Korean Central Committee Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol Delivers Letter From Country's Leader To President Trump

Donald Trump walks with Kim Yong Chol, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong-un’s closest aides, on the South Lawn of the White House on June 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. Olivier Douliery – Pool / Getty


One day President Donald Trump threatens to nuke North Korea and appoints the US’s preeminent foreign policy hawk, John Bolton, to be national security advisor. Not long after, Trump flatters Kim Jong-un and signals his desire to negotiate with the North Korean leader.

Trump’s contradictory messages in recent months have introduced an additional element of unpredictability into the US’s relationship with the Koreas, enormously complicating efforts at achieving peace on the peninsula. Even for experts like John Feffer, it’s a “truly disorienting experience” that makes North Korea-US relations “an uneasy issue to track.”

So where do things stand, just days away from the scheduled summit in Singapore between the US and North Korea?

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