Trump and Korea - back on the roller coaster

The North Korea Watchers are back on the Trump roller coaster again. The safety bar is down, and the gears are turning.

On Tuesday morning, North Korea watchers in Seoul awoke to the news that President Trump made a video call from the stage at the Commander in Chief Ball, and asked U.S. service members in South Korea a question: 

“How’s Kim Jong Un?” 

That simple remark shattered four years of calm, some would say boredom, of the Biden administration. It was a jolt. A shock that caught some off guard. 

It’s nearly eight years since North Korea watchers woke up to Trump’s threats of "fire and fury". Nearly eight years since Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks that aircraft carrier groups were heading to Korea (when they were going in the opposite direction). Nearly eight years since waking up to reports that Trump was asking about evacuating U.S. citizens from South Korea. Nearly eight years since they routinely scanned Trump’s late-night tweets and off-the-cuff remarks, waited for them to be translated into Korean, saw them disseminate across the domestic media, and then hesitatingly listened as they were regur…