Am I the  only one who hasn’t swallowed the kool aid on Korea?

The world was agog on Friday when the leaders of North and South Korea met on the 38^th parallel and went for a walk.  No-one would deny the images and the symbolism was powerful but was it really the dawning of a new age?

After all the leaders of the 2 Koreas have met twice before, in Pyongyang, in 2000 and 2007, and the meetings then were heaped with the same hopeful praise and rhetoric and yet nothing happened.  Perhaps in our dumbed down age we’ve developed long-term memory loss.

My question to you is what on earth has the last 70 years of the Korean War been about.  A war that saw 1.2 million people die including 33 New Zealanders. To my eyes, the West waged war to stop the spread of communism from the North driven by Russia with the tacit support of China.  It was a war that sought to reunite the 2 Koreas under a prosperous democracy. It was a war that was necessary to maintain the West’s influence in Asia.

So the weekend’s developments is a sign we have given up.  In all the statements there is nothing about reunification, there is nothing about the deposition of Kim and his family and holding them to account for the abuses of their people. There is nothing about a return of democracy to all of Korea.

But what about Kim’s claim to want denuclearisation?  Over the past 17 years, North Korea has said they would denuclearise on 4 occasions and then done nothing until the point in this past year where they have a  reliable bomb.  So far they’ve pledged a freeze on testing.  Of course they have, they don’t need to test anymore because they’ve got a functioning weapon.

Kim has played a brilliant hand aided by a useful idiot in the White House who can only see a favourable headline. Now, this goes down badly with Trump fans many of whom couldn’t point to Korea on a map. But realise this.

The North has always sued for peace and has approached every single US President but were turned down every single time until now.  In agreeing to meet with Kim, Donald Trump has legitimised Kim’s claim to influence and control of his part of the peninsula. Kim is now here to stay and it makes a mockery of the past 70 years and all the sacrifices made to get rid of the little rat and his evil family.

Meanwhile, if Kim is successful in reducing the US activity in the South it further reduces the West’s influence in Asia.  Something Chin, in particular,r would love as they continue to annex the South China seas for themselves.

So bully for Trump.  In his mind he thinks he’s won the peace but the reality is he’s lost the war. A Nobel prize?  Give me a break. He’s pardoning a mass killing dictator.