North Korea Doesn't Care What Trump Has to Say

Like his Iran policy, Trump’s handling of North Korea was a failure with serious consequences.

It doesn’t look like Trump and Kim Jong-un will be exchanging any more love letters in the future:

North Korea’s state media rebuffed comments that former President Donald Trump made about good ties with leader Kim Jong Un, saying “we do not care” and warned its nuclear arsenal stands ready for any US leader.

The official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary Wednesday, that while Trump tried to advance personal relations, Pyongyang saw US policy as remaining hostile, adding the former president “did not bring about any substantial positive change.”

The chilly North Korean response to Trump’s remarks in his convention speech isn’t surprising. Trump made unhinged threats against North Korea in the first year of his presidency and waged an intense economic war against them for the remainder of his term. When Kim seemed to be open to reaching some kind of compromise, Trump insisted on sticking to his maximalist demands that were always going to be unacceptable to North Korea.

Instead of taking a modest compromise deal at Hanoi that was within reach, Trump (egged on by Pompeo and Bolton) wanted North Korean capitulation and ended up with nothing. Trump has long believed that walking away from talks is a shrewd tactic, and as usual he was wrong. Kim was reportedly angry at being burned by Trump and has since rejected any new negotiations.