Trump-Kim meeting have negative implications for North Korea

According to Wall Street Journal, The Kim meeting could come within days of Mr. Trump’s May 12 deadline for deciding whether to extend U.S. sanctions waivers on Iran. The president has repeatedly attacked the Iran agreement and warned he may refuse to sign the waivers, a step that would likely breach the agreement’s terms and could see Iran revive key nuclear work.

People involved in the Iran deal have long said its fate could weigh heavily on diplomacy with Pyongyang. They argued that abandoning the 2015 Iranian accord will lead Mr. Kim to conclude that security guarantees he will almost certainly seek from the U.S. in exchange for scaling back his nuclear program can’t be relied on.

Now, some of the same voices said they fear the opposite will happen. With the diplomatic window suddenly opening with North Korea, it could persuade Mr. Trump that killing the Iran deal could strengthen his hand with Mr. Kim.

Wendy Sherman, the lead U.S. negotiator on the Iran deal who also led years of diplomacy with North Korea in the Clinton administration, said “the logic is that if the United States leaves” the Iran deal, it would undermine Washington’s credibility.

 “However the president may, because of the way he operates, believe that somehow, tearing it up, will say that he won’t negotiate what he calls a ‘bad deal.’ That would be a disaster because he would then have two nuclear crises on his hands at the same time,” she said.

Another senior western diplomat said the Kim talks are likely bad news for the Iran agreement, which lifted most international sanctions in exchange for temporary but tight restrictions on most Iranian nuclear work. “There’s a risk that he says this was a bad agreement and we’ll show you how to do business,” the person said of Mr. Trump.

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