My libertarian friends are all excited about President Trump’s potential meeting with murderous, unhinged North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. This is stunning diplomacy! Not one other President has met with North Korea’s leaders! If it helps avert nuclear war, it’s good! Talks>Nukes. Trump is amazing! While the sentiments are ebullient and optimistic, the paranoid in me thinks this is a very bad idea for several reasons.

1) Call me crazy, but a man who has no problem using a nerve agent to murder his own brother would have no problem doing the same to the President of the United States – especially after their puerile Twitter dance. Kim is a murderous narcissist; do we honestly believe he wouldn’t try something similar with anyone he doesn’t like – even the President of the United States?

Kim had his own brother murdered by two women who rubbed an odorless, tasteless liquid on his face, which turned out to be the chemical agent VX, and it killed him a couple of hours later. I’m guessing Secret Service will keep an eye out for obvious weapons, such as guns and knives, not an agent that Kim or one of his goons can transfer through a handshake.

An assassination attempt against the President would definitely throw the world into chaos, especially if the attempt was successful. And while liberals would almost certainly not weep at the thought of President Trump being taken out of commission, I doubt they’ve considered the ramifications. Pence becomes President. US retaliates. War.

I may be paranoid, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

2) President Trump told Bloomberg a few days ago that he would be “honored” to meet with Kim. Honored? Really? This is a problem. Kim is a tyrant who has tortured and murdered his own people. He hit one of his own cities with a medium-range missile. He murdered an American citizen Otto Warmbier, ferpetessake! Why would any American President legitimize this bloodthirsty savage not just by meeting with him, but also publicly proclaiming he would be proud to do so?

That’s imbecilic!

Meeting with Kim sends the world a signal that he is a world leader on par with the President of the United States, when he is no such thing. He’s a fat, insane murderer, who does not need to be legitimized by the leader of the free world!

It’s bad enough that the little bastard weaseled his way into the Winter Olympics this year, charming the world mediots to such a degree, that they experienced a collective orgasm over Kim’s equally odious sister, cheering North Korea’s “charm offensive” like a bunch of teenagers at a rap concert. But now, by agreeing to meet with the bloodthirsty savage.

3) There’s something North Korea has wanted and tried to manipulate for years: an end to the US alliance with North Korea. The presence of US troops and military assets in South Korea is a critical deterrent against the North’s aggression. Does anyone honestly think Kim’s first priority in the region wouldn’t be to break it apart?

North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship in March 2010 and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a South Korean territory, in November 2010 raised tensions. In response, South Korea and the United States held joint military exercises and Washington announced additional economic sanctions intended to further squeeze the Pyongyang regime. With growing fears of instability in the North as a result of regime succession, experts have urged greater cooperation between Washington and Seoul on contingency plans to address diplomatic, economic, security, and humanitarian challenges.

One minute Kim lobs colorful rhetoric at South Korean President Moon Jae-In, and the next, he’s offering an olive branch, offering to restart negotiations, and sending his athletes to compete in the Olympics in a united Korea. One minute Kim is calling President Trump a “dotard” and the next minute he’s offering to meet? Color me skeptical.

To be sure, it would do wonders for President Trump’s ego to negotiate a denuclearized North Korea, but I doubt that would ever happen. And frankly my concern is that the President is getting played. It’s not the first time North Korea will have tried to cajole the US to break our treaty obligations with South Korea.

Is it really so hard to imagine that the President, in an effort to achieve what no other world leader has – DPRK’s denuclearization – would be led into a scenario that’s bad for the US, bad for South Korea, and bad for the rest of the world?

Sorry, it’s not hard at all.

“I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is committed to denuclearisation. Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests,” South Korea’s National Security Advisor told reporters yesterday.

This is repetition of what Mr Chung had announced in Seoul on his return from Pyongyang. Mr Chung, however, did not repeat that Mr Kim included a conditional in his offer to denuclearise, which is that his regime’s security would have to be assured. The North Koreans have also long called for the end of the United States’ “hostile policy” toward them, which may include the departure of US troops from South Korea.

So, he wants an end to the US “hostile policy” against the DPRK. An end to sanctions, which have squeezed North Korea so hard, cannibalism has become commonplace. An end to a strong alliance between South Korea and the US that holds military exercises near its border and guarantees that Kim will never endanger South Korea’s safety and security. Meeting with President Trump can only improve North Korea’s situation. It can only worsen ours.

Everything from safety concerns to foreign policy implications screams, “BAD IDEA!”

Sure, it’s possible that Kim gazed into the steely grey resolve in Trump’s eyes and cried, “Uncle,” but somehow, given Kim’s history of ruthless viciousness, I doubt it.