特朗普口中的金正恩：從“瘋子”到“十分可敬”

WASHINGTON — Less than a year ago, President Trump was savaging Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, as a “madman” and murderer of his own people, branding him as “Little Rocket Man” for his nuclear testing exploits and poking fun at his portly stature.

華盛頓——不到一年前，特朗普還在猛烈抨擊朝鮮領(lǐng)導人金正恩是一個“瘋子”，屠殺本國人民的兇手，還因他進行核試驗蔑稱他為“小火箭人”，取笑他發(fā)胖的身材。

Early Thursday morning, a jubilant Mr. Trump described how Mr. Kim had been “excellent” to three American prisoners he had agreed to release from a prison in North Korea, and “nice” to free them so early — a “wonderful thing” that showed Mr. Kim’s desire to end his country’s isolation. The comments came two weeks after Mr. Trump praised Mr. Kim as “very honorable” in discussions about a coming summit meeting.

周四上午一早，特朗普就喜氣洋洋地說，金正恩很“好”，因為他同意釋放三名關(guān)押在朝鮮監(jiān)獄的美國人，而且能這么早釋放也是很“不錯”的——這是一件“大好事”，表明金正恩有終結(jié)國家孤立狀態(tài)的意愿。就在做出這些評論兩周前，特朗普稱贊金正恩在討論即將到來的峰會時“十分可敬”。

The head-snapping rhetorical turn has accompanied a major shift in the dynamic between the United States and North Korea as Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim prepare for the unpredecented meeting next month in Singapore. It also underscores the president’s black-and-white worldview — a stark formulation in which there is good or evil, friend or enemy, and not much in between — that has opened him to criticism that he has been too quick to embrace a brutal leader as a worthy negotiating partner.

眼下特朗普和金正恩正在準備下月在新加坡的那場史無前例的會晤，在他的言辭猝然反轉(zhuǎn)的同時，美朝關(guān)系的動靜開合也正迎來重大轉(zhuǎn)變。這也突顯了總統(tǒng)非黑即白的世界觀——一個非好即壞、非友即敵、沒有多少中間位置的單調(diào)構(gòu)想——過快地將一個殘酷的領(lǐng)導人接納為值得尊敬的談判伙伴，也引來了人們的批評。

“We’re starting off on a new footing,” Mr. Trump said at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, where he had arranged for a showy middle-of-the-night arrival for the prisoners to be broadcast live on television. He added, “There’s never been a relationship like this.”

“我們有了一個新的起點，”特朗普在馬里蘭州的安德魯斯聯(lián)合基地(Joint Base Andrews)說，在這里，他安排了一場讓電視現(xiàn)場直播囚犯半夜抵達的炫耀場面。“從沒有像這樣關(guān)系，”他補充道。

Critics pounced on the remarks as evidence that the president was in the process of being duped and outplayed by Mr. Kim.

批評人士立即將這個言論視為總統(tǒng)正在被金正恩欺騙和擊敗的證據(jù)。

“We can’t be fooled into giving the North Korean regime credit for returning Americans that never should have been detained in the first place,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. “It is so troubling to hear President Trump say that Kim Jong-un treated the Americans excellently.”

“我們不能因為他們歸還了幾個人就被愚弄去贊揚朝鮮政權(quán)，這些美國人本來就不該被關(guān)押，”紐約州民主黨領(lǐng)導人、參議員查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)。“聽到特朗普總統(tǒng)說金正恩對美國人很好，讓人非常擔憂。”

Over-the-top messaging, both positive and negative, is nothing new for Mr. Trump, whose 1987 book “The Art of the Deal” argued that “bravado” was crucial to salesmanship.

正面和負面兼有的、過于夸張的信息，這對特朗普來說并不新鮮。他1987年的書《交易的藝術(shù)》(The Art of the Deal)就稱“虛張聲勢”是一個十分關(guān)鍵的推銷技巧。

“People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular,” the book says. “I call it truthful hyperbole.”

“人們愿意相信某個東西是最大的、最棒的、最驚人的，”這本書寫道。“我把這叫做‘真實的夸張’。”

As president, Mr. Trump has married that style with a distinctly personal approach to foreign policy, in which he appears to have utmost confidence in his ability to win over his counterparts around the world with flattery, shows of respect and plays to ego — all things that he relishes himself.

作為總統(tǒng)，特朗普將這一風格與他個人獨特的外交政策手段結(jié)合了起來?？雌饋恚钚抛约簯{著阿諛奉承、表現(xiàn)尊敬、迎合自負的本事可以征服全世界——他自己也樂在其中。

White House officials said this week that Mr. Trump had made it clear that he was unwilling to offer any concessions or negotiate for the release of the prisoners, and expressed confidence that Mr. Kim would respect that position and do the right thing anyway.

白宮官員本周表示，特朗普已經(jīng)明確表示，他不愿在釋放在押人員的事情上做任何讓步或談判，并相信金正恩終歸會尊重這一立場，做出正確選擇。

“It’s not unusual in diplomacy for people to be yelling at each other in one moment and singing kumbaya in the next, but what makes this so dramatic is that the president went further in both directions than others have,” said Peter D. Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University who was a national security official under George W. Bush. “I think that’s a reflection of his belief that we have to break the standard playbook here — we’ve tried everything else with North Korea and it hasn’t worked, so why not try something different?”

“在外交上，人們上一秒互相大罵、下一秒高唱‘歡聚一堂’(kumbaya)的情況并不少見，但總統(tǒng)的驚人之處在于，他在兩個方向上都比別人更進了一步，”杜克大學(Duke University)政治學教授、曾在喬治·W·布什(George W. Bush)政府擔任國家安全官員的彼得·D·菲弗(Peter D. Feaver)說。“我認為這說明他堅信我們該打破標準玩法——我們對朝鮮什么都試過了，都沒用，那為什么不試些不同的東西呢?”

Few dispute that Mr. Trump has shattered the norms of diplomatic communication when it comes to his language about Mr. Kim — both positive and negative — and raised the stakes for the nuclear negotiations along the way.

特朗普對金正恩使用的正面和負面語言打破了外交溝通的常規(guī)，順帶也提高了核談判的賭注，這一點很少有人會有異議。

“He has gone from extremely negative comments on Kim designed to frighten him into coming to the negotiating table to, now, extremely flattering comments designed to make him conclude a deal,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former C.I.A. analyst who is a senior fellow for Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s just so over the top. No president has ever spoken in either way.”

“為了嚇唬金正恩坐到談判桌前而給出十分負面的評價，轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榱爽F(xiàn)在為使他達成協(xié)議而作出的極其諂媚的評價，”前中情局分析師、現(xiàn)為國際戰(zhàn)略研究中心(Center for Strategic and International Studies)朝鮮問題高級研究員的蘇密·特里(Sue Mi Terry)說。“這實在是太夸張了。這兩種方式，都是任何一個總統(tǒng)都不曾使用的。”

The love-hate dynamic started during Mr. Trump’s candidacy in 2015, when he described Mr. Kim as “this maniac sitting there” with nuclear weapons who had to be dealt with. Once Mr. Trump became president, the insults continued. In 2016, Mr. Trump called the North Korean leader a “bad dude.” He became more heated in his denunciations over the summer after Mr. Kim tested a long-range missile that appeared capable of hitting the United States.

這樣愛恨交織的動態(tài)從特朗普2015年還是候選人的時候就開始了，當時他形容金正恩是帶著核武器“坐在那兒的瘋子”，必須解決。特朗普成為總統(tǒng)后，這樣的侮辱仍在繼續(xù)。2016年，特朗普稱這位朝鮮領(lǐng)導人是一個“壞家伙”。在那年夏天金正恩試驗了似乎有能力抵達美國的遠程導彈后，他的譴責變得更加激烈。

“Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?” the president wrote on Twitter. Weeks later, he vowed to rain down “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea continued to threaten the United States.

“這家伙的生命中就沒別的事可做了嗎?”這位總統(tǒng)在Twitter上寫道。幾周后，他誓言如果朝鮮繼續(xù)威脅美國，他就要傾倒“世界前所未見的炮火與怒火”。

Mr. Trump brought his streetfighter-style words to the United Nations the next month with another threat to Mr. Kim. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” he said, a line that he embellished during a campaign rally in Alabama not long after, branding the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man.”

接下來的一個月，特朗普把他街頭打斗式的語言帶到了聯(lián)合國，再次威脅金正恩。“火箭人正在為自己和他的政權(quán)執(zhí)行一項自殺式任務，”他說。不久，他又在一個競選集會上再次修飾了這句話，將朝鮮領(lǐng)導人蔑稱為“小火箭人”。

His advisers privately cringed at the talk, concerned that the president’s warnings and insults could escalate tensions with Mr. Kim, who is known to be thin-skinned, to the point of precipitating a nuclear crisis.

他的顧問們私下里對這一言論表示懷疑，擔心總統(tǒng)的警告和侮辱可能會加劇與金正恩的緊張關(guān)系——金正恩以臉皮薄聞名——以至于加速核危機的惡化。

Now, the concern is in the other direction, that Mr. Trump is raising expectations for his ability to achieve a breakthrough with Mr. Kim that may not materialize, based purely on a personal rapport that he is overstating.

現(xiàn)在，人們的擔憂轉(zhuǎn)到了另一個方向，那就是，特朗普正在導致人們對他與金正恩取得突破的能力產(chǎn)生過高的期待，他所能依靠的只有他所夸大的融洽的個人關(guān)系。他可能無法實現(xiàn)突破。

“The problem is that this gives a sense that he’s so willing to conclude a grand bargain with Kim that he’ll do anything,” Ms. Terry said of Mr. Trump. “I don’t think he can help it.”

“問題是，這給人一種感覺，他非常迫切地想與金正恩達成一項重大協(xié)議，所以他愿意做任何事情，”特里這樣評價特朗普。“我認為他無法控制自己。”

Michael D’Antonio, a Trump biographer, said that from a young age, Mr. Trump had become accustomed to using grandiose words to threaten or flatter, usually to sell something, oftentimes himself.

特朗普的傳記作者邁克爾·德安東尼奧(Michael D’Antonio)表示，特朗普從小就習慣于用夸張的言辭進行威脅或奉承，通常是推銷什么東西，往往是他自己。

“I actually think that these guys speak the same language,” Mr. D’Antonio said of Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim, adding that the summit meeting would bring together two leaders who are supremely focused on their own images, intolerant of slights and addicted to flattery.

“我真的認為，這兩個人說的是同一種語言，”德安東尼奧在提到特朗普和金正恩時說。他還表示，這次峰會會把兩個非常專注于自己的形象、無法容忍蔑視、癡迷于奉承的領(lǐng)導人聚到一起。

“So we're going to have a narcissist duet in Singapore, with these two guys, maybe the only two guys on Earth who know this song so well,” Mr. D’Antonio said. “And they’re going to sing it to each other.”

“所以，我們會在新加坡見證一場自戀二重唱，他們也許是地球上唯一非常熟悉這首歌的兩個人，”德安東尼奧說。“他們會唱給彼此聽。”