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Trump's Nobel intentions hinge on deal with Kim
US President has done well until now by changing tack on Korean policy
- PUBLISHED: Sun 29 Apr 2018, 9:00 PM UPDATED: Tue 1 May 2018, 12:18 AM
In the 1982 Academy Award winner Reds, American journalist and revolutionary John Reed (Warren Beatty), who journeys to Russia to document the Bolshevik Revolution, tells fellow activist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) passionately: "The place to be now is Russia." Some moments and images just won't fade away from your memories. Today as the world is beginning to witness the righting of yet another wrong by Russia, the Korean peninsula is the place to be.
The images of the demarcation line between the two Koreas, distinctive by a small stretch of powdery sand on the northern side and black gravel on the south, and of King Jong-un literally strolling with his right hand stretched out to greet Moon Jae-in will remain forever in the memories of any peace-loving person on the earth. They starkly contrasted with the images of former US president Bill Clinton coaxing Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to shake hands in the lawns of the White House on September 13, 1993, after the signing of their peace accord. Moon carried the aura of a matured, confident leader despite being in power not more than a year. Kim looked so relaxed as he stepped over the line to become the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
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"As I walked over here, I thought why was it so difficult to get here?" Kim told Moon. "At the moment Kim crossed the MDL (Military Demarcation Line), Panmunjeom has become a symbol of peace, not a symbol of division anymore," Moon said. The world watched in disbelief as Kim, in an unscripted gesture, invited the South Korean president to step briefly into North Korea.
It was an "I told you so" moment for US President Donald Trump who said a couple of days ago Kim Jong-un is very open and very honourable. This American conduct certificate came after a year of war-like rhetoric in which the US president had threatened to annihilate North Korea in response to Kim's nuclear provocations. For the uninitiated, the following are some of Trump's venomous remarks on Kim:
>North Korea is run by some very bad people
>North Korea is the last place on Earth I want to go to
>It's where you have this maniac sitting
>This guy's a bad dude - and don't underestimate him
>Kim Jong-un is a smart cookie
>The Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself
>A madman with nuclear weapons
>He is short and fat
>He is a sick puppy
And one fine morning Trump, who has mastered the art of self-contradictions and political doublespeak, woke up being enlightened and declared his eagerness to hold a summit meeting with Kim. He even sent CIA Director Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang for a secret meeting with the North Korean leader, tweeting later that a "good relationship" has formed. While the date, time and venue of the summit are yet to be worked out, with Friday's declaration that a peace treaty would be signed this year, the Korean leaders have not only stolen the thunder from Trump but also ensured for themselves a prime space on the shortlist for Peace Nobel in the immediate future.
That's troubling news for Trump who had put some of his key campaign promises on the back burner to push the personal agenda of bagging a Nobel. A sudden u-turn on his Korea policy, especially his recent tweets ennobling the North Korean leader, belied his ambition to upstage his democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, whose awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 had come under worldwide criticism.
Writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, former Nobel secretary Geir Lundestad says Obama was honoured on the expectation that it would strengthen the president, but it failed to achieve what the committee had hoped for. "Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he says. In the backdrop of the Obama debacle, a Nobel for initiating denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and bringing a lasting peace in East Asia - earned through hard work and personal charisma - would be something the republican president could beat his bête noire with for the rest of his life.
Before his White House entry, Trump has been long on wealth but short on class. Despite being a great wheeler-dealer and real estate magnate, Trump never belonged to the elite group of American businessmen like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and their ilk. Neither would he be able to match the refinement and sophistication of political leaders like Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Which explains why Trump is so jealous and vindictive about the Obama legacy and is hell-bent on cancelling out everything the former president had achieved. Obama makes him feel jealous and insecure. It's his ambition to shake off the label of a parvenu and get respected that drives his reinvented Korean policy.
A Nobel would serve the purpose. It's a short cut but one that would demand a lot of give and take at the proposed summit. Once the Koreans shake hands, the Americans have no business to continue in the region. So Trump has to grab the initiative to address the trust deficit with Pyongyang and lead both Koreas to total denuclearisation. Trump just can't throw away the golden chance to piggyback Kim and Moon to the peace club and prove that his Nobel wasn't served on a platter like Obama's but was well earned.
There are a number of issues that would weigh against Trump at the Nobel committee. Several of the US president's recent actions have been against the spirit of the coveted prize. His arbitrary decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the American embassy to the holy city goes against the principles of the Oslo peace accord for which the trio - Arafat, Rabin and his foreign minister Shimon Peres - had won a Nobel.
Trump's pledge to build an impenetrable border wall between the US and Mexico and to bar Muslim from the American soil have also earned him the title of destroyer of peace. With a life-long history of racism, Trump would need a hugely successful Korean accord to cancel out all negatives on his curriculum vitae. It would also be suicidal for the Nobel committee to honour a president who refuses to impose a ban on guns that snuff out hundreds of lives in America every year. So Korea wouldn't necessarily be a Nobel red carpet for Trump. Unless he is ready to mend his ways, there could be many a slip between the cup and the lip!