North Korea would offer a compromise in which the north would pretend it got rid of its nukes and the U.S. would pretend it has verified that and believes it. This may seem possible to the North Koreans but in the United States and South Korea, it would not work. A free media means it is impossible to hide such things for long and both the Americans and South Koreans are well aware that they were deceived several times by North Korea since the 1990s. [emphasis added]
That level of pretending has actually worked. That was exactly the basis of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as I warned long before the deal:
God help us, but the obvious compromise taking shape is that we'll believe we struck a real deal with Iran by believing any obvious lie that Iran is willing to tell us to reach that deal. John Kerry will think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for that document.
Heck, that was also the basis for the 2013 chemical weapons deal with Syria that didn't actually prevent Syria from using chemical weapons.
The American media, rather than being an obstacle to pretending, eagerly went along with the pretending that the Obama administration orchestrated for the Iran deal in their friendly echo chamber.
The only reason North Korea has reason to believe we won't pretend with them is that Trump stopped pretending with Iran and demonstrated the price Iran will pay for thinking it had beaten us with a pretend nuclear deal:
The United States on Monday demanded Iran make sweeping changes -- from dropping its nuclear program to pulling out of the Syrian civil war -- or face severe economic sanctions as the Trump administration hardened its approach to Tehran.
There will be no more pretending. I hope.
[NOTE: I see one person saw this last night before I noticed I mistakenly posted this back in time yesterday morning ... ]
UPDATE: So no pretending:
"A bad deal is not an option," [secretary of State] Pompeo said in his opening remarks for a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. "The American people are counting on us to get this right. If the right deal is not on the table, we will respectfully walk away."
Good.
