Frank Jannuzi, a former Democratic staffer on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is not surprised that President Donald Trump cancelled his planned summit with North Korea -- and he calls it a "classic example" of the president's "incompetence."
Writing on Twitter, Jannuzi says that the problem started when the president misread the reasons that Kim was willing to engage in negotiations in the first place. While granting that Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign did help, he said that the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in -- and his subsequent efforts to start peace talks -- was arguably an even more important factor.
"Not understanding WHY diplomacy was an option, no surprise Trump badly mishandled opportunity he was gifted," he writes. "He continued to threaten the DPRK -- Libya Model references -- even during immediate run-up to the summit."
Jannuzi then takes aim at Trump's bizarre letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un -- and he noted that the letter is difficult to comprehend even for native English speakers, let alone for the governments in North and South Korea.
"Trump's early morning letter is a classic example of his incompetence -- barely coherent, full of internal contradictions, at once conciliatory and deeply provocative, threatening, in essence, a nuke strike on DPRK," he writes. "The letter should NEVER have been sent."
And yet, the letter was sent. Jannuzi says that the North Koreans will interpret this as showing that Trump cannot be a reliable negotiating partner for any kind of peace treaty.
"At this point, best course of action for USA would be to go quiet on this issue for several months, and hope that they can re-boot the diplomatic overture," he explains. "But since when has Trump shown an ability to keep quiet about anything? He will likely sulk, and play the blame game."
Read the whole thread below.
