I could rewrite the letter from Trump to Kim but I won’t waste my time. It is a travesty on several levels (noted in my Tweet above). Hearing Mike Pompeo read it out loud made me cringe. If I was teaching a class in diplomatic writing I'd send it back with “REWRITE” emblazoned in red across the top.
May 24, 2018
His Excellency
Kim Jong Un
Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Pyongyang
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.
I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.
If you change your mind have to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealthy. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.
Sincerely yours,
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America
The letter is like ”an 18 yr. old’s stream of consciousness from breakup letter from a kid in summer camp” paraphrased from what Amb. Wendy Sherman just said on MSNBC.
Poor writing or not, can we call Trump a diplomate?
Really?
South Korea’s government seemed blindsided by Trump’s announcement.
“We are attempting to make sense of what, precisely, President Trump means,” said government spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
Shortly before midnight in Seoul, South Korea’s president called an emergency meeting to discuss Trump’s decision, summoning his chief of staff, national security adviser, foreign minister, unification minister and intelligence chief to the presidential Blue House. Washington Post
Thursday, May 24, 2018 · 5:44:23 PM +00:00
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HalBrown
From RawStory, Frank Jannuzi, a former Democratic staffer on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations writes about the letter, echoing my opinion:
Jannuzi then takes aim at Trump’s bizarre letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — and he noted that the letter is difficult to comprehend even for native English speakers, let alone for the governments in North and South Korea.
“Trump’s early morning letter is a classic example of his incompetence — barely coherent, full of internal contradictions, at once conciliatory and deeply provocative, threatening, in essence, a nuke strike on DPRK,” he writes. “The letter should NEVER have been sent.”
And yet, the letter was sent. Jannuzi says that the North Koreans will interpret this as showing that Trump cannot be a reliable negotiating partner for any kind of peace treaty.