It doesn’t matter what happens if Trump’s Singapore meeting with Kim Jong Un goes ahead — the North Korean will have won

Korea Summit Press Pool/Getty Images

• Despite threatening to pull out of the June 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, North Korea craves the legitimacy the meeting would bring.
• Traveling by plane to a neutral destination away from the Korean Peninsula could show Kim as a competent world leader.
• That would add to the level of legitimacy granted by Kim just being able to meet with Trump, regardless of the location or outcome.
• But Singapore also symbolizes Trump’s desire to move away from South Korea as an intermediary between the US and North Korea — and that neither needs to rely on South Korea. 

Despite threatening to pull out of the June 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flying to Singapore would give Kim the one thing he craves most: legitimacy.

North Korea has long wanted to be seen and treated like any other country, and its nuclear development was seen by many as a means to achieve that end. And now that the meeting will be hosted in a country away from the Korean Peninsula, that outcome appears closer than ever.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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