Trump 'throws the dice' with Kim summit

SOUTH Korea will push ahead this week with its northern neighbour to prepare for Donald Trump's proposed summit with Kim Jong Un, the first time a sitting US president has ever met with a North Korean supreme leader. While the meeting has been characterised by some as a "Nixon goes to China" moment, there are key differences with the Trump-Kim meeting and indeed question marks remain over whether the session will actually take place at all.

A striking factor about Mr Trump's decision on March 8 to meet Mr Kim is how spur-of-the-moment the decision was with little detailed preparation, at least to date. By contrast, Mr Nixon's visit to see Mao Zedong in Bejing in 1972 came after years of contact building and diplomacy by Mr Nixon, Henry Kissinger and others.

By contrast, it is not clear that Mr Trump has a comprehensive, clear or coherent strategy towards the meeting, and his team is going through a key transition to boot. Not only has Mr Trump fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; his Special Representative for North Korea Joseph Yun has recently retired; and he has no ambassador in Seoul.