Joseph Lotfy

Writerjoe99@hotmail.com

ISN’T Donald Trump the worst American president we have had so far?

Trump has accomplished digging himself into a big hole with the rest of the world politically, and no one is agreeing with him on his points of view, including world presidents. While trying to juggle every situation in America, he has an overbearing North Korea threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at America with no end in sight on how Trump will solve it.

When North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, threatened to attack Guam a few weeks back, Trump responded with “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States… they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Obviously, Trump has no room for patience, and is eager to solve this situation quickly by any means necessary.

Yet, the one thing unanswered is why is Kim angry and unwilling to cooperate and discontinue his ICBM program? My opinion is that Trump has continued to put sanctions on North Korea like the latest one which is a total ban on their major exports including coal, iron and iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood — which is a combined loss of over US$1.8 billion a year. These types of restrictions have ruined the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea (also known as the DPRK).

Instead of getting into the political details of why Kim’s angry, how about we look at how we could solve it! In my honest opinion, Trump doesn’t know why Kim keeps perfecting his ICBM program and threatening the world. So how about Trump makes an official trip to North Korea and sits down with Kim without any media attention. When Trump takes the time to talk with Kim face-to-face, then he will be able to understand Kim better.

In order for them to have a smooth conversation and cooperation in the future, Trump should use “empathetic listening,” meaning that he should listen to Kim with the intent of understanding why he is angry. If Trump finds out why in a peaceful conversation, then he will be able to take steps to solve those issues one by one. Possible reasons why Kim is angry include continuous sanctions on his country and his people by the U.S., and annual military drills between the U.S. and South Korea.

The final and most vital step of all would be that the U.S. and the DPRK find a win-win solution, and the U.S. removes all sanctions on the DPRK. By the U.S. removing the restrictions on N. Korea, you’d be allowing them the chance to move freely and also they would be open for future dialogue. Therefore, he would be encouraged to meet other world leaders for discussions on how to build cooperation with other countries like in oil, coal, import and export of other commodities and investment.

Sadly, in the last few months Kim has refused any type of meeting or resolution with any country. The only way to get any future discussion with Kim would be to not hurt his ego. Quite contradictory, I think Kim can behave well if we do not mishandle the situation. Kim’s friend and former NBA player Dennis Rodman and Rodman’s former teammates continue to play an annual basketball game for Kim’s enjoyment. In my opinion, words, rather than missiles, will be the better way to solve the DPRK nuclear problem. Give peace a chance.

(The author is a businessman and freelance writer from America.)