Frank Sinatra would change the songs lyrics? He needn’t. The Real Way to Get Rid of Kim’s Nukes.

Frank Sinatra did not write the song. He sang it and when I think of the lyrics I associate it with him. I was surprised when checking on the lyrics to refresh my memory and read that the song is mostly associated with Dean Martin. I don’t get those guys mixed up so even though most associate it with him for me it is a Sinatra song.

The song I’m referring to is the one that is called “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.” As I recalled, and when I checked my recollection was correct, the last line of the song is “So find yourself somebody to Love.”

I keep thinking about the song when I think of Kim Jong Un. Putting things together I cannot but wonder whether Sinatra would have changed the words as sometimes he was known to do to “You’re nobody till the day you get nukes.” Of course the last line would be “So find yourself some nukes to own.”

Old Blue Eyes crooning out those new lyrics would be summing up the North Korean situation quite nicely were he with us today. He would have made us look squarely at the elephant in the room which is Kim knows he’s not just another tin pot dictator because he has nukes. This makes it impossible for him to surrender them. Without them he believed he is as the song states, a nobody.

The elephant is telling us that if Kim wants to continue to be a somebody he knows he needs nukes. Why isn’t it obvious to everyone that he cannot give them up? Why did Trump have a “historical meeting” with Kim when this is the case? Kim can no more give up his nukes than Trump could give up his comb over.

Why not then deal with the situation as if that is the case rather than pretending otherwise?

Right now the daffyness of the situation is that we are relieved the extreme insulting rhetoric between Trump and Kim which made us appear on the brink of nuclear Armageddon has stopped. Trump is being praised by some for having brought this about. This is odd. He started it. It need never have happened. It’s like praising an arsonist who starts a fire who helps put it out.

If we recognize the reality of the situation, that is that Kim can never give up his nukes and that there is really no way to make him do it by force of arms because of his ability to bring about massive carnage in Seoul even without them, we can better deal with the situation.

To date, prior to the weeks before the Singapore get together, our position has been to consider North Korea a pariah state and make it clear any use of nukes by it will ensure its annihilation. Prior US presidential administrations have tried to deal with it but the attempts always foundered on the rocks of North Korea’s relentless push toward developing a nuke and our demands that it stop.

This approach continued under the early days of Trump. Then we had the meeting earlier this week where Trump and Kim became best friends – grandpa and his grandson made up with the old man extolling the virtues we never knew the young lad had. They put down on some paper four or five vague platitudes including the old bugaboo denuclearization.

Since that won’t happen why do it?

You see though that Trump, although he apparently does not recognize it by insisting like past presidents that Kim also give up his nukes, has stumbled upon the way to let Kim have his nukes but make it like they are unnecessary appendages.

In other words Kim wants to be somebody and uses his nukes to gain that stature. Trump meeting with him made him a somebody. But Trump is taking it one step further. He is playing to his ego and building him up to such a height (prospect of a visit to DC, .a return visit to Pyongyang, Trump hotels or condo developments at his “beautiful beaches”, a McDonald’s or even a Pruitt franchised Chik-Fil-A, a seat if honor at the military parade, floor side Celtic tickets, American sport teams playing in North Korea, American investment, etc) that Kim will understand he will lose all these goodies if he ever considered using his nukes.

It’s sort of like when the Devil offered Jesus all those worldly goods when he tried to tempt him during his 40 days in the desert. Trump likewise is offering Kim the chance to be great and tons of worldly goods. Kim’s no Jesus so he’ll quickly fall for the bait.

Simply put playing to his ego that he is a remarkable leader appreciated by the world at large and especially the United States makes him into the somebody he wants to be. Trump is unwittingly planting in Kim’s mind that he a star in his own right without nukes. Now that the world recognizes his brilliance and sense of humor there is only one was Kim will lose his new-found status as a Hollywood idol if he uses nukes.

Obviously Trump is not aware that he has discovered the road to making North Korea into a nation desirous of peaceful coexistence with other nations. But he has. One can only hope he and those around him recognize it and don’t fall back into the usual approach as we encounter hiccups along the way.

We can let Kim have his nukes. We have no choice. We can though make sure he never uses them not by threatening him but by telling him that he will lose the world’s adulation if he does.