North and South Korea Pledge Peace

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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10 Responses

  1. Kolohe says:

    There’s people I respect on my Twitter feed e.g here and here that are skeptical of this entire process, but I can’t say I agree with them.

    ROK is a soveriegn democracy with much more at stake in all this, so if this is what their leadership wants to do, it’s not our place to poo-poo it.Report

    • Maribou in reply to Kolohe says:

      @kolohe I am only skeptical in that I was raised in a really bad situation such that whenever I get this hopeful about anything, my first thought is “oh shit, now we’re all gonna die.”

      But the part of me that does not react that way is pretty damn hopeful about this.Report

      • Kolohe in reply to Maribou says:

        To be clear, I’m skeptical as all heck that anything’s going to come out of this (in the short term), but I’m not worried about the US/ROK alliance at all. Our posture should be ‘led the South Koreans lead’ (and has been a big part of our posture since we started to draw down troops in the early 00’s to send them to Iraq)Report

  2. Jesse says:

    I think an underplayed reason for this happening while people obsess how much credit Trump should get is that thanks to the collapse of the Korean right due to the shaman scandal, the Korean left was able to win the Presidency on a platform that included talking to North Korea.Report

    • Andrew Donaldson in reply to Jesse says:

      That is a huge factor. It is also a point of concern for me, as the ruling party ran and was elected on a reconciliation platform while that scandal crippled opposition. I’m not an expert, but clearly the current SK leadership was desiring an agreement for some time. My hope is this is all legitimate and profitable for everyone, but I worry promises were made to DPRK in order for the South, and us, to claim a hollow victory.Report

    • Morat20 in reply to Jesse says:

      Also, they now have nukes (which allows for, bluntly, a certain safety factor from forcible regime change) and thanks to accidentally collapsing their test site, they have a large fig leaf to bring to the table.

      I suspect the prime mover in any real sense is China, which is about the only country on Earth than can actually arm twist NK to any extent.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to Jesse says:

      Trump deserves no credit but will get plenty because of national and international politics. Everybody else is right on what is really happening. The small credit Trump might get was because he scarred the be-jesus out of South Korea’s leadership.Report