What Trump's North Korea Diplomacy Says About His Russia Strategy

2025-04-25 07:01:10

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Donald Trump says he wants to end the war in Ukraine. It's worth asking what kind of“peace” he has in mind – and whom it would actually serve. For anyone looking for insights into how Trump's latest diplomatic gamble over Ukraine might unfold, there is already a precedent: his high-stakes engagement with North Korea during his first term.

If history is any guide, the Trump-Putin talks will be flashy, vague and ultimately meaningless – just like his North Korea diplomacy.

Trump's dealings with Kim Jong Un were a masterclass in showmanship. His North Korea talks delivered no lasting diplomatic achievements, but they did produce some unforgettable images and memorable firsts: a sitting US president meeting a North Korean leader for the first time, a handshake and an unprecedented crossing of the DMZ into North Korea and a dramatic departure at the Hanoi Summit.

Each of these moments was presented as historic, but ultimately yielded no denuclearization, no durable peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula and no reduction in threats to Northeast Asia or the world.

Now, as Trump pledges to bring peace to Ukraine and eyes direct negotiations with Putin, the critical questions must be asked: Will his approach to Moscow follow the same pattern as with Pyongyang? Will high-profile negotiations over Ukraine become a spectacle rather than a substantive diplomatic effort? And, most importantly, if peace is achieved who will benefit?

From 2017 to 2019, Trump led highly personalized negotiations with Kim Jong Un. The process moved from escalating rhetoric and chaos to an abrupt pivot, culminating in a series of summits with great photo-ops, a promising but hollow agreement and, ultimately, the collapse of negotiations.

In 2017, Trump heightened tensions by threatening“fire and fury” against North Korea's“Little Rocket Man” and warning that he had“a bigger nuclear button” on his desk. The world braced for war, only for Trump to reverse course as inter-Korean relations improved and announce his intention to negotiate.

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