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Deciphering Kim’s Secretive Visit to Beijing
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Kim Jong Un’s
March 26-27 visit to Beijing to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping wasn’t a total
surprise. Importantly, this meeting comes in the run-up to both the
Inter-Korean Summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in,
and the historic meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Amb. Joseph
DeTrani, former Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks with North
Korea,
shares his thoughts on the surprise trip by Kim to China:
- “China
wants a negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue with North Korea. This means that Kim
probably was told that China expects him to discuss and commit to
the eventual denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, with
assurances that North Korea's security concerns are adequately
addressed.”
- “The
expected announcement that Chinese Ambassador Ning Fukui will be appointed Deputy
Special Representative for Korean Affairs is significant. Ning Fukui
was the former Ambassador for Korean Nuclear Affairs during the Six
Party Talks…I personally spent much time with Ning Fukui during that
time and found him to be a true professional – sincere, hard-working
and goal-oriented. His appointment speaks to Beijing's intent to be
actively involved in all future negotiations with North Korea.”
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Trump and Kim Jong Un: Let’s Make a Deal
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Photo:
Jacklin Nguyen/The Cipher Brief
How should
President Donald Trump prepare for his upcoming meeting
with Kim Jong Un? By looking at the record, writes retired Ambassador Richard
Boucher.
Boucher was
present for the highest direct official discussions by
the United States with a North Korean leader, when then-Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000. Boucher offers some
lessons learned:
- “What
did we learn from her visit? First, that the regime is
heavily reliant on the North Korean military. The preparatory
delegation, the first meeting location, the organization of events,
all rested in the hands of the military. [Kim Jong Il] at one point
evaded a question from Secretary Albright by saying, ‘I don’t know;
I’m only the president.’”
- “It
may take several rounds to get what we want, but our side needs to be
clear on exactly what we need and what we’re prepared to give. Then,
we need to stick to it with discipline and firmness. At the same
time, we need to freeze the sanctions in place until we make real
progress.”
- “Consultations
with allies in Japan and South Korea as well as with China are
essential
to holding firm and ensuring the North Koreans know what the deal is
and will remain. Any strategy to prepare for the meeting needs to
include high-level consultations in advance with the other
interested parties.”
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The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media
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The
Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data exploitation crisis, in which personal
information on more than 50 million Americans was used for political
purposes, “seems to be waking up a new wave of Americans to the
fundamental downsides of our purposeful addiction to social media
providers,” writes Todd
Rosenblum.
Rosenblum,
a former senior official in both the Pentagon and Homeland Security, says
these downsides are reflective of a base problem with the social media
platform business model—and leave our information ecosystem at risk:
- “Congress can’t fix the
problem.
Congress cannot keep pace with the speed of technological
inventiveness. Congress spent years passing legislation to improve
the climate for industry, namely by increasing government cyber
threat information sharing. But during that time, deep, new threats
vaulted well ahead of this challenge.”
- “Sponsored content is
dangerous.
Sponsored content is advertising. Sponsored content is not unbiased
analysis or news. Sponsored content is worth more to social media
providers when it looks like news and is placed in the middle of
news reporting. Too many content providers – well beyond social
media platforms – have dangerously blurred the line between actual
reporting and advertising.”
- “The fundamental business
model is here to stay. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
is to be commended for acknowledging his platform was, and is being
used by a foreign power to foment domestic unrest, and political
consulting firms are using user data for nefarious purposes. But
until the basic revenue stream shifts from selling user data to
third parties, fundamental dangers will persist.”
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