President Donald Trump made history on Sunday, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea. Yet his brief handshake with North Korean leader Chairman Kim Jong-un just across the 38th parallel has been criticized as a media stunt and has drawn the ire of political opponents.
“It’s just an honor to be with you, and it was an honor that you asked me to step over that line. And I was proud to step over the line,” Trump told Kim.
Trump’s impromptu visit to the Korean Demilitarized Zone followed the G-20 Summit in Japan, and was first floated publicly last week with Trump saying on Twitter he was open to coming to “say Hello(?)!” The meeting was Trump’s third with the North Korean dictator and came just over a year since the two men met in Singapore, which was the first ever meeting between leaders of the two countries.
In a rare public statement, Kim said through a translator that the visit is “an expression of [Trump’s] willingness to eliminate all the unfortunate past” and look to the future.
Trump has been widely criticized for giving Kim an elevated platform on the world stage without firm concessions on nuclear proliferation and an easing of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
“It is a big moment for diplomacy ... but what did the president really get,” John T. Bennett, Roll Call’s White House correspondent, told Cheddar. “This is reality television 101, this is Donald Trump 101.”
Kim sees nuclear weapons as “key to his survival as the supreme leader and giving that up will be a big lose internally,” Bennett added.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the White House was pursuing a new round of negotiations and was open to a nuclear freeze, which would be a far cry from Trump’s stated goal of the complete denuclearization of North Korea. National Security Advisor John Bolton denied the Times report on Monday, saying on Twitter that it was a “reprehensible attempt by someone to box in the President.”
Several Democrats and 2020 presidential candidates spoke out against the meeting and criticized Trump’s affinity for the world’s strongmen. The meeting with Kim also followed a publically jovial chat with Russian President Putin just days prior in Japan.
In a statement to CBS News, a spokesman for former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump’s “coddling of dictators at the expense of American national security and interests is one of the most dangerous ways he's diminishing us on the world stage and subverting our values as a nation.”
California Sen. Kamala Harris also slammed the meeting, tweeting that Trump “should take the North Korean nuclear threat and its crimes against humanity seriously. This is not a photo-op. Our security and our values are at stake.”
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the U.S. president “shouldn’t be squandering American influence on photo ops and exchanging love letters with a ruthless dictator.”
Trump ended the meeting with Kim on Sunday with an invitation to the White House. North Korean state media reported that the two leaders privately agreed to stay in touch and continue a dialogue.
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