North Korean saber-rattling dims euphoria of Trump’s DMZ meeting

Nearly a month after President Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to walk on North Korean soil, the euphoria from his meeting with Kim Jong Un faded this week as North Korea fired off two short-range ballistic missiles, unveiled a high-tech submarine and rejected foreign food aid for millions of its impoverished citizens.

The primary accomplishment of Trump’s June 30 visit to the Korean border was an agreement to relaunch working-level talks in “two or three weeks,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time. But that time frame has come and gone, raising the question of whether Pyongyang’s truculent behavior represents an about-face on its commitment to hold talks or is simply a negotiating tactic ahead of the meetings.

For Trump, North Korea’s brinkmanship threatens to complicate his reelection message that his diplomacy has dramatically reduced the likelihood of war on the Korean Peninsula and set the stage for a historic denuclearization deal.

Read the full article and more in The Washington Post.