RMIT expert available for comment on upcoming US-North Korea summit

Dr Emma Shortis (0430 358 798 or emma.shortis@rmit.edu.au)   

Topics: US history, US politics, Trump administration, US-Australia relations

“President Donald Trump is days away from his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, this time in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“Their first meeting, in June 2018, attracted much attention but produced little more than a photo opp for a beleaguered President. The second summit may well be a repeat of the first.

“The president is reportedly eager to use the meeting to gain some positive attention on the global stage and distract from controversies at home. In all likelihood, that is all the summit will achieve—and for a short amount of time at that.

“While drumming up attention for the meeting, Trump has repeatedly made the ridiculous claim that, ‘If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea’.

“Taking such an attitude to Vietnam, the site of one of the United States’ most destructive and controversial wars, is typical Trumpian arrogance.

“Trump did not prevent war with North Korea. But his cavalier attitude to starting one—be it with North Korea or somewhere else—should be of concern to us all.”

Dr Emma Shortis is a Research Officer at the EU Centre in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. She recently returned from a year in the United States, where she was a Fox-Zucker International Fellow at Yale University, working on her PhD in history. Emma is becoming a regular media commentator on the history and current politics of the US, tailored for an Asia-Pacific audience.

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