Politico’s Nahal Toosi nailed it yesterday with the headline: “ 'Nobody in the bullpen’ : White House approaches North Korea talks without envoy (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/30/north-korea-white-houseenvoy-pompeo-687898)."
As Toosi tells us, until this past February, Donald Trump had a special representative for North Korea policy. His name is Joseph Yun, a widely admired career Foreign Service officer, but he retired in February.
Had he not done so, it’s quite possible that Trump would not have stood on its head all conventional diplomatic convention by agreeing to meet with North Korea’s toughest guy, Kim Jong-un.
After reading Toosi’s article, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, desperate to bring on somebody who can do the heavy lifting for him in the DPRK, called associate solitary reporter Ko Il-sun, who has years of experience in both North and South Korea.
“Mr. Ko, you’re my man. Tell me how to deal with Kim Jong-un, please.”
“Mike, my friend,” Ko replied, “there’s only one person qualified to be your point person in your talks with Kim.”
“Who’s that? I thought it would be you!”
“You need a former Secretary of State who has been around the world many times representing President Obama.”
Pompeo groaned.
“Mike, just arrange a special flight to Pyonghang for me and Secretary Clinton. We'll give you all the ammo you need to convince Trump to leave this to the pros.”