Advertisement
With Trump to meet Kim, the real Korean games have only just begun
A smiling sister, beautiful cheerleaders and an unprecedented invitation to the US president. It looks rosy, but a shadow hangs over North Korea’s charm offensive
3-MIN READ3-MIN
The president of the United States plans to meet the North Korean leader by May, a meeting with no precedent that leaves little sense of what to expect. The North Korea nuclear crisis has long been a storm full of wave after wave of recycled headlines, but it has finally reached the shore of an undiscovered country. Where does it go from here?
The Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games have almost allowed people to forget the world is at the brink of nuclear war, a state of affairs brought on by the reckless and often puerile game of chicken between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. Absent from their back-and-forth had been any whiff of diplomacy or grace under pressure, as if turning whole cities into charred wastelands and leaving millions dead had already become a foregone conclusion.
Can North Korea cover up its brutal regime with lipstick diplomacy?
But then Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, stole the Olympic spotlight last month when she became the first member of the Kim dynasty to visit the South by attending the opening ceremony and delivering to President Moon Jae-in an invitation to Pyongyang.
Now, South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong has gone to Washington after a visit to Pyongyang earlier this week, conveying to Trump an invitation to meet with Kim himself.
Select Voice
Select Speed
1x
AI-generated voice