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Experts: Trump Should Take N. Korea's End-of-Year Deadline Seriously

Kelly Kasulis

   SEOUL - U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be calling North Korea's
   bluff on its end-of-year deadline for nuclear negotiations, prompting
   some analysts to wonder whether the U.S. president should be taking
   Pyongyang's threats more seriously.

   "Kim Jong Un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything
   actually, if he acts in a hostile way. He signed a strong
   Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore. He does not want to
   void his special relationship with the President of the United States
   or interfere with the U.S. Presidential Election in November," Trump
   tweeted on Dec. 9. "North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un,
   has tremendous economic potential, but it must denuclearize as
   promised."

   That same day, a top North Korean official released a threatening
   statement that addressed the U.S. president directly through the
   country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

   "It seems that Trump is very anxious to know what we are thinking now.
   And he feels very fretful about what will be done by us," said Ri Su
   Yong, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of
   Korea. "The recent words and expressions spouted one after another by
   Trump sound like a threat to someone at a glance, but they are a
   corroboration that he feels fear inside."

   "Trump might be in great jitters, but he had better accept the status
   quo that as he sowed, so he should reap, and think twice if he does not
   want to see bigger catastrophic consequences," Ri continued.

   In both Seoul and Washington, experts are concerned that Trump's
   bluster will only continue to yield mirrored responses from Pyongyang.

   "Whether Trump is taking [North Korea's deadline] seriously is really
   unclear. But he definitely should be," Jenny Town, a fellow at the
   Stimson Center and managing editor of North Korea news analysis site
   38North.

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