Nicholas Kristof: Our Nobel Peace Prize Winner-in-Chief

Delusions of grandeur View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Saturday, February 23, 2019 [NYTimes.com/Kristof »]( [After their summit last year, President Trump asserted that Kim Jong-un had sent him “beautiful letters” and that “we fell in love.”]( After their summit last year, President Trump asserted that Kim Jong-un had sent him “beautiful letters” and that “we fell in love.” Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump will meet in Vietnam in a few days with Kim Jong-un, and they have something in common. Each looks in the mirror and sees a Nobel Peace Prize winner. North Korea is abuzz with Nobel talk, and Trump has boasted that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated him for a Nobel (he didn’t mention that the White House asked Abe to write the letter, and Abe seems mortified that his effort to stroke Trump’s ego became public). This is of course delusional. Neither Trump nor Kim will win the Nobel Peace Prize (I hope it will go to [Loujain al-Hathloul]( who has been imprisoned and tortured in Saudi Arabia for advocating women’s rights). But the [upside of delusion]( is that they may indeed be pursuing peace a bit more diligently, and I think it’s plausible that there will be a painstaking path ahead that reduces tensions and makes the world safer. One reason for a bit of optimism is that Kim Jong-un seems to care deeply about galvanizing the economy. One person estimated to me that 60 percent of North Korea’s economy is now shaped by the free market, and Kim is said to have told Chinese President Xi Jinping that North Korea should have joined China in the 1980s in opening up its economy to the world. There are lots of reasons for skepticism, but that’s one for hope. [My column]( outlines what the path ahead may look like. Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman visited China — and defended China’s mass detention of 1 million Uighur Muslims in that country. “China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremization work for its national security,” he said on Chinese television. Sigh. Drugs don’t get enough attention in the United States, even though they kill 70,000 Americans a year — more than guns or cars. Most of those deaths are from opioids, but in recent years there has also been an explosion in the use of meth and deaths from the drug. Some 12,000 Americans now die annually from meth. One of my old friends in Oregon died recently after many years of wrestling with meth, so it’s on my mind. Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as good treatments for meth as there are for opioid addiction. More research funding is desperately needed. And now [here’s my column]( about the U.S.-North Korea summit and what we can expect. [Enjoy!]( Dumbest Lawmakers North Dakota may have passed the dumbest bit of legislation so far this year: It bans gun buybacks, and makes it a crime for police departments to support buybacks. In fact, we don’t really know whether gun backs are a cost-effective way to reduce gun crimes, but there is some logic to the idea that if fewer unwanted guns are lying around, there will be fewer murders, accidents and suicides. As Mike Weisser notes [on his blog]( we certainly shouldn’t ban buybacks, which pay only about $100 per gun. That’s just NRA-style fanaticism. Looking Ahead It’s not getting much global attention, but there is a risk of an escalating crisis between India and Pakistan. A Pakistani terror group claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir, and this creates great pressure on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond militarily. And any time you have cross-border military strikes between two nuclear powers, escalation is a great risk. I’m sympathetic to India in its outrage that Pakistan lets a terror group operate, but I worry that Modi will push too far, perhaps with bombings of Pakistani territory, in ways that will lead to a Pakistani response, and so on. ADVERTISEMENT You can connect with me on [Facebook](. If you have friends who might enjoy this newsletter, forward this email or tell them they can [sign up here](. Send feedback or tech questions to kristof-newsletter@nytimes.com. Recent Columns [Rapists Presented by Their Church as Men of God]( Southern Baptist leaders ignored the wrongdoing. An all-male clergy is part of the problem. [‘The Trump-Russia Story’: Cue the Stage Lights]( In this drama, the stakes are enormous. What I’m Reading in The Times [Don’t Abolish Billionaires]( By WILL WILKINSON Abolish bad policy instead. [Democrats for Family Values]( By PAUL KRUGMAN Elizabeth Warren has another very good proposal. ADVERTISEMENT NEED HELP? Review our newsletter [help page]( or contact us [for assistance](. FOLLOW NICHOLAS KRISTOF [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nickkristof]( [Instagram] [nickkristof]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Nicholas Kristof newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2019 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018