Contrast this with Trump’s zero-sum strategy, mirrored by the subsequent demands from his team that North Korea make concessions without giving any themselves.
China, too, has its own agenda, in recent months loosening trade restrictions with Pyongyang and undercutting Trump’s efforts to pressure Kim, according to former officials and experts.
“Kim Jong Un’s genius is to set three balls rolling” — the U.S., South Korea and China, according to Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow at Leeds University, in England. “They all interact, cleverly.”
“This is not all about America, and it’s not all about nukes,” he said.
‘Moon is the tortoise and Trump the hare’
A major stumbling block is North Korea’s desire to bring an official end to the war.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
American officials are worried this would lead to further calls for a permanent end to military exercises or even withdrawal of the 28,000 American troops based in the South.
“Stylistically, Moon is the tortoise and Trump the hare,” said George Lopez, a former member of the United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korean sanctions.
Trump “is trying to win the entire diplomatic race in a speed-blitz of incomplete promises and big declarations on security,” said Lopez, who is now a professor emeritus at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
“Moon is slow and steady and paying attention to detail,” he added.
Other experts go further and say Moon isn’t bothered by North Korea’s nuclear abilities but wants to do enough to keep the U.S. onside.
“Moon wants to improve relations; he doesn’t care if North Korea disarms or not,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California. “Of course, he knows the United States cares, so his goal is get just enough on the score to keep Trump happy.”
Like the CIA, Lewis believes there is zero chance of Kim ever giving up his nuclear arsenal. According to Lewis’ theory, Moon hopes Trump has hitched his star so firmly to the Korea issue that he is eventually “willing to settle for vague assurances on disarmament.”
With talks at an impasse, Trump has asked Moon to be “chief negotiator” between Washington and Pyongyang. They’ve all been able to ride along together so far, their hopes and dreams not clashing too much.
But Trump’s insistence on quick results and Moon’s desire for gradual progress could strain their relationship.
“I worry how long Trump can sustain this,” Lewis said. “He has repeatedly and publicly promised that Kim will disarm, and he seems to be dragging his feet now on the peace agreement.”
He added, “I just have the feeling that this will all of a sudden go sideways and Trump will lash out at Kim.”
David Wright, a co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, agrees.
“Trying to get Moon to be a mediator for the U.S. could be problematic if Moon sees the larger negotiations differently than the Trump administration,” he said.
Moon is “likely to be able to carry communications, but it seems to me he is unlikely to stall progress at the North-South level if he thinks the U.S. is not taking the steps it needs to in order to move things at the nuclear level.”
We’ll likely to know more on Sept. 18, when Moon is scheduled to travel to Pyongyang for his third summit with Kim.
South Korean officials say they will discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, and some hope it could reignite talks with the U.S.
But many remain skeptical.
Lopez said he “seriously doubts” Trump would accept Moon as a mediator if during the talks the South Korean leader sets the table for the U.S. to sign off on ending the war.
South Korea and U.S. relations, he predicted, “will become more distant and not resemble the partnership needed to craft mutual deescalation of the crisis and the nukes.”