It had all been going so well &#x2014; &#x201c;better than anybody could imagine,&#x201d; according to Donald Trump. But then the master dealmaker, the intuitive diplomat, cracked a fat joke &#x2014; just as he was sitting down to lunch across from the portly frame of North Korean despot Kim Jong Un.

Having earlier shared a historic handshake and exchanged warm words, President Trump and Kim Jong Un prepared to enjoy a working lunch with their aides.

Addressing photographers in the room, Trump asked if they were getting &#x201c;a good photo so we look nice and handsome and thin and perfect.&#x201d;

As the camera pans away from a smiling Trump, it shows Kim across the table looking shocked at Trump&#x2019;s comment, which appeared to reference his bulbous figure.

The cameras were then ushered out of the room. Fortunately &#x2014; for the entire world &#x2014; the leaders emerged together again and went for a stroll through the gardens of the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island before Trump showed Kim his car, known as &#x201c;The Beast.&#x201d;

'Get a good picture so we look nice and handsome' - Donald Trump asked photographers to make him look 'thin and perfect' at his working lunch with Kim Jong Un #TrumpKim #USNorthKorea pic.twitter.com/tWAYRz8mus— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 12, 2018



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per pool, Kim not amused by Trump’s fat joke: “Very nice, getting a good picture everybody so we look nice and handsome and thin?” Pool notes Kim later smiled when he sat down. #trumpkim2018.— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) June 12, 2018



Tara Palmeri on Twitter

Apparently, Kim isn’t used to enduring fat jokes. pic.twitter.com/0LQuBfbcZ6— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) June 12, 2018



Jeffrey Lewis on Twitter

In the summer of 2008, with TV cameras rolling, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear complex — a goodwill gesture intended to show the world it was serious about striking a nuclear deal. A decade later, history is poised to repeat itself.
North Korea has invited foreign journalists to observe the dismantling of Punggye-ri, the remote mountain site where six nuclear bombs have been tested in underground tunnels. The demolition, slated to occur May 23-25 depending on weather conditions, will involve “collapse by explosion” of the test tunnels.
“It'll make for great TV. But it doesn't actually solve the hard problems that will come after."
Much has changed over the past 10 years, but experts who study North Korea and its nuclear program warn that the plan for the nuclear test site and the 2008 cooling tower demolition are eerily similar: North Korea is once again offering a U.S. president something to brag about while not actually giving anything up.
“North Korea's plan to demolish the tunnels in front of journalists is a perfect, made-for-TV moment, exactly like demolishing the cooling tower at Yongbyon was in 2008,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “It'll make for great TV. People will be cheering, they'll be clapping. It'll be great. But it doesn't actually solve the hard problems that will come after — the hard problems that destroyed the effort in 2008 to get a deal.”
What happens next depends on President Donald Trump’s negotiating skills. Trump has agreed to meet the 34-year-old Kim in Singapore on June 12, though he warned Tuesday there’s “a very substantial chance that it won’t work out.” And one thing is clear: Trump’s goal is far more ambitious than his predecessors. In 2008, the U.S was negotiating to prevent further nuclear development. Today, Trump’s team seeks complete and “irreversible denuclearization.” But the term means different things to the opposing sides, and could prove an insurmountable obstacle to any deal. North Korea, for its part, has made it clear that unconditional surrender of nuclear weapons is a nonstarter.

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“It'll make for great TV. People will be cheering, they'll be clapping. It'll be great. But it doesn't actually solve the hard problems that will come after.”

North Korea’s plan to close its nuclear test site isn’t denuclearization

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_Cover image: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets U.S. President Donald Trump during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. (Kevin Lim/THE STRAITS TIMES/Handout/Getty Images)_

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Nuclear negotiations with a portly tyrant might not be the best time to crack a fat joke

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Nuclear negotiations with a portly tyrant might not be the best time to crack a fat joke

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