Axios: Admin officials say rapprochement plans involve using gymnasts, musicians, McDonald's

[highplainsdem]

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-6cccc5b8-0e43-49d1-a899-3b9b2562f709.html

Pain and presents: McDonald's and musicians ... President Trump will confront Kim Jong-un using "a strategy to impress as well as intimidate" — and is open to planting a U.S. embassy in North Korea.

U.S. officials involved in the summit preparations have even discussed enlisting gymnasts and musicians to bring the cultures together, sources familiar with summit prep tell Jonathan Swan and me.

Part of Trump's expected message is telling Kim how much wealthier he and his people would be if he were engaged with the U.S. A source familiar with the U.S. preparations says Trump likes the idea of iconic American businesses, like McDonald's, eventually getting to North Korea.

-snip-

U.S. diplomats are taking a cue from the "ping-pong diplomacy" of 1971, when the U.S. and China exchanged table tennis players as part of a thaw that led to President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.

So the Trump team is considering avenues for cultural engagement, including the possibility of the U.S. hosting North Korean gymnasts and Pyongyang's symphony orchestra.

-snip-

[hatrack]

1. Yes, and Ceaucescu also found North Korea "impressive" . . .

Kim Il Sung was much of the inspiration for his plans for a "Greater Romania".

[RockRaven]

2. Why the hell would McDonalds go along with this?

Thery'e a publicly traded company -- they care about making money not diplomacy or sucking up to a POTUS, and while long-term growth is considered, show term results matter more. They can't make a lot of money off North Korea, because the people there don't have much disposable income, and then there are currency exchange problems... And the backlash from consumers in the rest of the world for doing business with that mass-murderous, enslaving-of-millions regime is going to make South Africa's apartheid era boycotts look like child's play. We live in an era where companies won't buy ads on certain TV/radio shows because of social-media-organized boycotts. Why would McDonalds stick itself into an extraordinarily controversial nuclear weapons situation to appease an unpopular president who nearly everyone agrees is doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason?