Trump To Kim: “Instead Of Missiles, You Could Have The Best Hotels In The World”

And now we get to the real reason behind the US-North Korea summit.

In talk that was reminiscent of then-candidate Trump’s famous comparison of the Israel-Palestine conflict to a land deal during the Republican primary debates, Trump told a group of reporters Tuesday that he had floated the prospect of rebuilding North Korea’s coastline to feature beachfront hotels and other developments, allowing the developer-in-chief to relate to Kim Jong Un through perhaps his only life-long passion: Real estate.

Trump says he showed Kim an iPad that reportedly included details about how, instead of ballistic missiles, North Korea could have “some of the best hotels in the world.”

“They have great beaches…you see that whenever they’re exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there,” Trump said he told Kim.

“Think of it from a real estate perspective, you have South Korea, you have China – and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that?”

Trump’s comments followed the conclusion of the Singapore summit, which saw Trump and Kim sign a nonbinding letter of intent whereby Trump agreed to halt US-South Korean joint military drills while making other unspecified “security guarantees” while Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwaivering commitment” to removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Trump added that he planned to invite Kim to the White House and the two leaders would meet “many times” for future talks.

Trump said he brought Kim to the table by showing him what the future could look like should he choose the path of peace: “Instead of [testing missiles] you could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective” https://t.co/XBC0Sh0nRK pic.twitter.com/dlxvxLPcLG

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 12, 2018

Asked in a post-summit interview if the removal of US troops from South Korea was discussed, Trump said “we didn’t discuss that, no.” But Trump added that “we will be stopping the war games.”

Trump has repeatedly spoken of North Korea’s potential to be a “great” country, including – most recently – before he departed the G-7 Summit in Quebec for North Korea. As the Hill pointed out, Trump comments showed that his “experience as a real-estate developer was on full display.”

All of which begs the question:

Have they broken ground on Trump Pyongyang yet?

asking for a colleague.

— shinebox (@ljzaz) June 12, 2018

And some have imagined it…