By Printus LeBlanc
Late last Thursday night, the world was rocked by the sudden announcement that President Donald Trump had accepted a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The mainstream media and foreign policy gurus were in shock. How could an unsophisticate such as Trump possible be taken seriously by the Kim regime? After the unbelievers pick their jaws up off the floor, they should study history and see that President Trump is following the mold of President Reagan and practicing an age-old philosophy: Peace through strength.
Peace through strength has been around for millennia, but President Ronald Reagan made it famous in his battle with the Evil Empire, the Soviet Union. Reagan believed you could only achieve peace by building up your military and showing prospective adversaries that it would not be wise to test the military might or resolve of the U.S.
Many in the mainstream media and foreign policy establishment have spent the days after the announcement blasting the President for accepting the meeting. It should be remembered the elite of past administrations spent decades trying to solve the North Korean conundrum only to make matters worse by giving in to demands and allowing the regime to stall for time.
What seems to be different this time, is the North Koreans are offering concessions to talk. As noted above, in previous talks nations went to North Korea with offers in hand begging them to stop what they are doing. This time, Kim Jong-un has said he will stop testing missiles if the U.S. meets with North Korea. Additionally, the regime reportedly wishes to discuss denuclearization and normalizing of relations with the U.S.
President Bill Clinton capitulated to the North Korean regime in 1994. The hermit kingdom threatened to abandon its commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), after refusing international inspections. The Clinton administration panicked and sent the modern-day Neville Chamberlain, former President Jimmy Carter, to negotiate a deal to keep the regime in the NPT.
The deal reached became known as the Joint Framework Agreement. The agreement was nothing more than diplomatic extortion. North Korea got $4 billion in economic benefits along with two light-water nuclear reactors. The regime never followed through with any of its promises in the agreement and continued to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile technology.
President George Bush also tried the appeasement method when dealing with North Korea. Bush famously labeled North Korea as part of an “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union speech. Despite the harsh rhetoric, the same policies of nonconfrontation continued to dominate. It was during the Bush presidency, 2006, that North Korea detonated its first nuclear weapon, announcing to the world it cheats on every deal it has ever signed.
The Obama administration tried nothing new with North Korea. They tried multilateral talks, they tried bribery, and they tried bluster, nothing worked. What the Obama administration did that no other administration did, was finance the regime by way of Iran. The disastrous Iran deal gave billions to the largest financiers of terror in the world, who in turn gave millions to North Korea to carry out a parallel nuclear program for themselves. Many intelligence officials have hinted this sudden influx of Iranian money could explain the recent rapid development of ballistic missile technology by North Korea.
So, it seems pretty obvious appeasement is not working. Enter President Trump. From day one in power, the President made it known that he viewed North Korea as the preeminent threat facing the U.S. and its allies. The Trump budget called for a massive increase in defense spending, including a plan for a 355-ship navy. The President personally threatened North Korea on Twitter and in press briefings over its continued nuclear and missile tests. Trump also pushed some of the harshest sanctions known against the terrorist regime. Many so-called experts believed we were headed for war.
Then it happened. The North Koreans reached out, and with no preconditions that we know about, have asked for direct talks with the U.S. to discuss the possible denuclearization of the peninsula. Why are they doing this now? Why not when they were being lavished with gifts from previous presidents? The answer is simple, peace through strength.
Because President Trump refused to back down, because he refused to beg the regime to play nice, and because it was believable he would not hesitate to decapitate the regime the leadership of North Korea, the enemy saw no alternative. President Trump has studied world dictators and understands one simple thing about them, and that is when you back down to a bully or dictator that is a sign to them you are weak, and they will continue to prey on you.
Obviously, the regime is not to be trusted. As peace through strength brought the U.S. and North Korea to this point, another Reagan saying must also be used going forward, trust but verify. Perhaps the pundits that worked on previously failed policies should sit back and see what happens, after all, they had their chance and made things worse. Give President Trump a chance.
Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
