Prior to his trip to the G20 meeting, Pres Trump said he would try to have a private meeting with Xi. I thought that was a great idea… who knows, it could lead to another round of badly needed trade-war negotiations.

And so it did.

When in South Korea, Pres Trump also said, he would try to cross the NK border, just “to say hello” to chairman Kim

I thought this was a brilliant idea. A brief, friendly and informal encounter could ease the tensions between adversaries, and make future negotiations easier.

And so he crossed the border and they met.

I checked NBC, to find out what they had to say about this historic moment (it was the first time that a sitting US president ever entered NK)

Rather than praising this brief encounter, NBC criticized it…

“… for all the fanfare, there were no signs that the U.S. and the North had made any concrete progress on denuclearization….”

What? For crying out loud, Trump went there to “say hello”, no more, no less.

…and NBC repeats the comments we have heard so often in the past….

“…Trump, by staging a high-profile photo-op absent nuclear concessions, was bestowing legitimacy on Kim….”

“Bestowing legitimacy”????? The Kim clan has been leading NK for the last few decades. Whether you like Kim or not, he is the leader of NK

And this expert continues to say…”undermining global pressure to force the North to accept a denuclearization deal.”

How long does it take to sink in that all the “global pressure” of the past has not resulted in any gains?

Maybe…just maybe….. a different kind of approach… a different kind of guy... can make a deal with Kim in the future.