Trump really has achieved a historic breakthrough - for the Kim dynasty | Jonathan Freedland
(The Guardian North Korea)

With a shake of the hand, the US president has tightened Kim Jong-un´s grip over an enslaved nation - and got almost nothing in returnA useful way to test the deal Donald Trump has reached with Kim Jong-un is to imagine what Trump himself would have said had it been Barack Obama rather than him who shook hands with the North Korean dictator. Trump and his echo chamber on Fox News and elsewhere would have poured buckets of derision on Obama for the piece of paper he signed with Kim, for the fawning praise he lavished on a brutal tyrant, and for the paltry non-concessions he got in return. He would have branded the agreement a `horrible deal` and condemned Obama as a sucker for signing it.Look first at what Kim got from the encounter. Once ostracised as a pariah, Kim was treated as a world statesman on a par with the president of the United States, the two meeting on equal terms, right down to the equal numbers of flags behind them as they shook hands. The tyrant now has a showreel of images - including his walkabout in Singapore, where he was mobbed by what the BBC called `fans` seeking selfies - which will feature in propaganda videos for months, if not years. Related: US to suspend military exercises with South Korea, Trump says Related: Singapore summit: what we learned about Trump-Kim meeting Continue reading...