While Seoul, Tokyo or Beijing had been impatient to see any sign or hint of Kim Jong Un's goodwill, U.S. President Donald Trump on May 8 finally announced that "the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal." To me, it sounds like another eerie feeling of deja vu about Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran.
This Iran nuclear deal, in fact, is one of the few issues on which I do not disagree with Trump. The deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) and concluded by the United Nations Security Council's permanent member states, Germany and Iran, was indeed "defective at its core" as Trump stated officially.
I cannot agree more. Trump said the JCPOA "allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout" and "lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for very weak limits on the regime's nuclear activity, and no limits at all on its other malign behavior" in the Middle East.