Why Trump has an unusual negotiating style

Mike Billington, Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, made the remarks when asked why Trump’s policy on North Korea, like so much of his presidency, has been shrouded in secrecy and confusion.

On Thursday, Trump announced that he was calling off the summit with North Korean leader Kim John-un that was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore.

Next day, however, he indicated the summit could go ahead as planned after welcoming a conciliatory statement from Pyongyang, which said it remained open to talks. And after few hours, he said his administration was having “productive talks” with Pyongyang about reinstating the summit.

On Sunday, Trump praised North Korea’s “brilliant potential” and said his team arrived in North Korea to arrange for his possible meeting with Kim.

“Well, Trump has an unusual negotiating style. He was not a politician all his life. He was basically a real estate builder. His view always has been as he said in his book that you have to take a tough line and then you negotiate. And I think that demonstrates with North Korea,” Billington said.   

“Many people were saying when he and Kim Jong-un were exchanging attacks and nasty words, people were saying that ‘oh there’s going to be a war. He’s going to get us into a war.’ And I was certain as I told Press TV a number of times that that was not true, that Trump in fact was moving in the right direction vis-à-vis North Korea, and that was because he was working closely with China as well as with Russia and South Korea,” he stated.   

“So what Trump was doing although he was taking a very hostile and somewhat nasty pose, he was working with all the parties involved including China and Russia who of course when Obama and Bush were negotiating, they all considered China and Russia as our enemies and therefore did not work closely,” he noted.

“In this case I believe Kim Jong-un recognized that Trump was serious about wanting to work with China because he was working not only with on North Korea but also on economic development and he considered himself a close friend of Xi Jinping,” the analyst stated.