IT MIGHT JUST BE AN INVITATION TO ANOTHER DIPLOMATIC GAVOTTE..
(…and may not otherwise achieve any kind of meaningful outcome)

Even when it occurs in its most byzantine and convoluted form, diplomacy generally is preferable to outright conflict, especially if conflict would engage nuclear weaponry. Thus, Kim Jung Un’s sudden about face after a year of missile rattling and exchanging explosive rhetorical grenades with him, by now inviting President Trump for a direct meeting together to talk things over, might just be an invitation to another diplomatic gavotte…and may not otherwise achieve any kind of meaningful outcome…beyond shoring up his status and position at home. Still, compared to open conflict…talk…is a hell of a lot cheaper…so it’s perhaps worth considering.

The big question here of course is why this about face at this time? There may be a number of reasons for it, the chief among them being:

1)Kim may be ill (based on how he looks more like the Pillsbury Doughboy or the Michelin tire guy than ever these days), so he may have indeed had an epiphany of sorts because of it (not bloody likely but who knows).

2)He has come to realize there’s a limit to how much one can twist a lion’s tail, especially if its character is extremely volatile and unpredictable in the way it might react to any situation, so discretion at this point may truly be sign of valor and smarts.

3)Having used the bad-ass puff-adder mode to demonstrate and show off his strike capabilities, he now feels more confident and in a stronger position for striking a deal with the US.

4)He and his mafia-like regime have now concluded that such a move can better achieve their ultimate goal of overlordship over all of Korea by deceit, guile, and subversion…instead of going for another round of brute force to do so…which they clearly understand would be suicidal.

5)His most senior military kahunas are near mutiny, because they’re tired of being international pariahs, tired of sanctions, and otherwise tired of being unable to enjoy all their ill-gotten gains over the years in the manner they would like to enjoy them.

6)Perhaps stronger than all of these factors, now that President Xi of China has firmly consolidated his hold on power there, he has finally told Kim in no uncertain terms to knock it off, because his provocative moves are complicating his own relations with the US, and otherwise screwing up his own strategic goals and objectives for the region. In short, Xi has reached the limits of his tolerance for Kim’s bad-boy behavior…the equivalent of having to endure a nasty suppurating boil on the Chinese dragon’s derierre.

Well, it could be any or all of the above reasons why Kim is going through the motions of making nice today. Take your pick

Meanwhile, because President Trump prides himself at being the ultimate master wheeler-dealer in such transactional situations, and, because we are literally from Missouri, our view is that we’ll all just have to wait to be shown…that he really is. For our country’s sake we hope that will prove to be true.

CENTURION