“It took almost two years to negotiate the final nuclear accord with Iran, which, unlike North Korea, did not possess nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump is on the verge of scrapping the Iran deal. That would be a monumental mistake in its own right, giving Iranian hard-liners the excuse to speed toward a breakout nuclear capacity, but without a united international coalition to oppose them or inspectors to expose them.
It would also make getting to yes with Pyongyang even more challenging. Iran is complying with the agreement. If Mr. Trump tears it up anyway, why would Mr. Kim trust anything Mr. Trump says or signs? And by scrapping the accord, Mr. Trump would set the bar almost impossibly high on any deal with North Korea, whose terms will have to be demonstrably better. Can Mr. Trump get Pyongyang to verifiably dismantle the vast bulk of its nuclear enterprise up front or accept the most intrusive inspections regime ever, as Mr. Obama did with Iran?
Instead of shredding the Iran accord, Mr. Trump should apply its basic template to North Korea. First, negotiate an interim deal that freezes Pyongyang’s program in place and starts to roll it back, gets inspectors on the ground and offers modest, carefully measured economic relief. Then use the resulting time to produce a more comprehensive agreement, ideally to include denuclearization and a peace treaty.
By some combination of accident and design, Mr. Trump has helped create a moment of opportunity in a place of enduring peril. If he keeps his eyes on the prize, he may not make it to Oslo, but he could make the world a less dangerous place.”
Source: Opinion | To Win a Nobel, Trump Should Look to the Iran Deal – The New York Times
DL: Good advice, if anyone in the White House is listening to anything beyond Fox News.