Stalled North Korea talks test Trump as dealmaker

Trump is facing skepticism from inside and outside the administration about his belief that personal relationships and presidential negotiations are the key to resolving long-running U.S. foreign policy quagmires.

That tenet of his presidency came under renewed scrutiny recently when the White House announced it has started planning a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Little progress on the nuclear weapons issue has been made since the initial summit in June. But much like that first meeting, Trump thinks he can negotiate a breakthrough if he gets in a room with Kim, with whom he has described having a warm relationship.

“I think what Trump sees is that he alone can make progress with North Korea,” said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA division chief for Korea who is now a senior research fellow at the con-servative Heritage Foundation. “He has repeatedly touted his good relationship with Kim, though this has led to achieving no U.S. objective yet.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/406406-stalled-north-korea-talks-test-trump-as-dealmaker