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Thread: US And North Korea Agree To Second Summit

  1. #1

    US And North Korea Agree To Second Summit

    In their first face-to-face meeting since President Trump abruptly canceled a visit scheduled for August, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly spent "several hours" together on Sunday engaging in "productive" talks that represented "another step forward" in US-North Korea relations. and progress toward achieving the agreements from the Singapore Summit The talks also yielded a verbal commitment to schedule the long-anticipated second summit meeting, according to South Koren officials, which the two sides have been working toward since the close of the historic Singapore meeting. According to the Washington Post, Pompeo and Kim met for "several hours" before eating lunch together.

    During their totally natural and not-at-all-staged lunch, Pompeo and Kim shared a meal that lasted more than 90 minutes while answering questions from journalists while seated at a large round table...
    ...both men insisted that it had been "so nice" to have had the opportunity to chat and that their talks had yielded "significant progress."
    "It’s good to see you again," Pompeo told Kim as the two men shook hands for the cameras before lunch. The Secretary of State then put his hand on Kim’s shoulder and the pair smiled.
    "Well, I am really pleased for this opportunity. After having a nice meeting we can enjoy a meal together," Kim said as they walked down a hallway for lunch.
    As they sat for lunch, Kim said, "It’s a very nice day that promises a good future for both countries."
    Pompeo said he had had a "great visit" and a "very successful morning", adding that Trump sent his regards. Both men spoke through translators.
    Several NK officials even told US journalists that they had no foreknowledge of Kim's decision to dine with Pompeo, suggesting that it was an "off the cuff" decision.
    US & NK officials alike were surprised that KJU decided to dine with Pompeo. When I asked one NK official if they knew KJU was going to have lunch with Pompeo today he said definitely not, with wide eyes. https://t.co/CUio2Wetya
    — Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) October 7, 2018
    Though a date has not been set, the New York Times reported that the US and North Korea had agreed to hold summit "as early as possible", citing the office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, which had been briefed on the meeting.


    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...e-conversation
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

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    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

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  3. #2
    It appears two are falling in love (not in LGBT kinda way.. not that there would be anything wring with that under the right social/moral circumstances).

    But this could be huge if this led to NK giving up its news and turning the country into a freedom based democracy (but not Libya style fake democracy). In that case, talk of Nobel Peace Prize for MAGA could make headlines once again.

  4. #3
    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held after U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6.Speaking to reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally, Trump said: "It’ll be after the midterms. I just can't leave now."
    Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that plans were being made for his second summit with Kim and that he thought "incredible" progress had been made in U.S. talks with the long-isolated North Asian country.
    He said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had very good talks with Kim over the weekend and that three or four locations were being considered.
    Pompeo echoed Trump's comments when he spoke briefly to reporters during a Tuesday afternoon visit to the White House.
    "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said.


    Pompeo said on Monday the two sides were "pretty close" to agreeing on details for a second summit.
    He added that Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the United States and North Korea agreed on logistics.

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-say...145824197.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  5. #4
    I can't understand who is winning, is there progress or is this more political double speak? Trump's MAGA UN speech was pretty clear about North Korea ending their human rights abuses.

    Quote Originally Posted by homahr View Post
    The UN is an imperial tool. The US will use it until it is no longer imperial.
    The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about; that’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.

  6. #5

  7. #6
    200 kayakers blocked the USS Ronald Reagan from entering the Jeju Navy base last week
    Kayaking protesters block U.S. Navy ship at event off South Korea
    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...8371539235611/



    South Korean President Moon Jae-in met residents of Gangjeong village,
    where the Jeju Navy base is located, to talk about their decade-long protest.
    Villagers and civic activists have been opposed to the base for a decade.
    "The president will hold a meeting with Gangjeong village residents
    to talk about their 11-year-long protests and the government's plan to heal their pains,".
    "I console Jeju residents for their pains from the establishment of the Jeju Navy base.
    I will try my best to cure their wounds and pains of Gangjeong Village residents," Moon said at the opening ceremony.
    "I will make the Jeju Navy base, a base for peace, not a war base."

  8. #7
    I'm actually hopeful Trump manages to bypass the war machine and end this mess. To bad he's not consistent across the board on this stuff but this would be a pretty big +.
    "The Patriarch"

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    I'm actually hopeful Trump manages to bypass the war machine and end this mess. To bad he's not consistent across the board on this stuff but this would be a pretty big +.
    true dat.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by nikcers View Post
    I can't understand who is winning, is there progress or is this more political double speak? Trump's MAGA UN speech was pretty clear about North Korea ending their human rights abuses.
    No real progress. Just another photo-op. Both sides say they won't make the first move.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by nikcers View Post
    I can't understand who is winning, is there progress or is this more political double speak? Trump's MAGA UN speech was pretty clear about North Korea ending their human rights abuses.
    Quoted randomly by nikcers. I am an honored Homahr.

    Last edited by homahr; 10-16-2018 at 10:09 AM.

  13. #11

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by enhanced_deficit View Post
    What about railway link and normalization of SK-NK relations/easing of sanctions.. that doesn't count?
    I think the biggest measurement of success will have to be in either trade or in quality of life for the average Korean especially North Korean. I think it would be amazing if North Korea and South Korea could play some Starcraft instead of war games.

  15. #13
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet North Korean United Front Work Department head Kim Yong Chol in the United States next week, the Japan Times reported Oct. 30.

    More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...meet-next-week
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  16. #14
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be traveling to New York on Thursday to meet with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol.The State Department says the top U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will join Pompeo and Kim to discuss efforts toward what it calls "achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea.

    More at: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pom...-york-thursday
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  17. #15
    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday President Donald Trump plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019 and will push for a concrete plan outlining Pyongyang's moves to end its arms programs.The United States and North Korea have been discussing a second meeting of their leaders after a June summit in Singapore to lay the groundwork for ending a nuclear standoff between the old foes.
    "The plans are ongoing. We believe that the summit will likely occur after the first of the year, but the when and the where of that is still being worked out," Pence told reporters after meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore.
    In a separate interview with NBC News, Pence said the United States would not require Pyongyang to provide a complete list of nuclear weapons and locations before the second summit but that the meeting must produce a concrete plan.
    "I think it will be absolutely imperative in this next summit that we come away with a plan for identifying all of the weapons in question, identifying all the development sites, allowing for inspections of the sites and the plan for dismantling nuclear weapons," Pence said.

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pence-say...-business.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  18. #16
    Last two scheduled meetings were cancelled due to no progress on weapons negotiations. Now the US backed off their demand that Korea provide a list of their facilities as a condition for this meeting. After their first meeting, Trump proclaimed that any nuclear threat by North Korea had already been eliminated.




    https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/polit...ses/index.html

    Satellite images reveal hidden North Korean missile bases

    New commercial satellite images released Monday have identified more than a dozen undeclared North Korean missile operating bases, another sign that Pyongyang is continuing to move forward with its ballistic missile program amid indications that talks with the US have stalled in recent months.

    While the network of undeclared sites has long been known to American intelligence agencies, it has not been publicly acknowledged by President Donald Trump, who asserted that North Korea was "no longer a nuclear threat" following his June summit with dictator Kim Jong Un.

    The CIA declined to comment on the images, but US officials have expressed concern about North Korea using hidden and undeclared locations to continue to work on improving their missile technology and possibly their nuclear program.

    The new images, first reported by The New York Times, show researchers at the Beyond Parallel program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies have identified 13 of an estimated 20 hidden missile operating bases unreported by the North Korean government.

    "These missile operating bases, which can be used for all classes of ballistic missile from short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) up to and including intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), would presumably have to be subject to declaration, verification, and dismantlement in any final and fully verifiable denuclearization deal," the report states.

    US intelligence has long assessed that the North Koreans have stored much of their weapons capability, including mobile missile launchers, in underground mountain bunkers.

    Specifically, the images focus on the Sakkanmol missile base, which "currently houses a unit equipped with short-range ballistic missiles but could easily accommodate more capable medium-range ballistic warheads."
    Last edited by Zippyjuan; 11-16-2018 at 01:39 PM.



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  20. #17
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...amodern-weapon

    North Korea's Kim Jong-un supervises test of 'new ultramodern weapon'

    Declaration, which did not specify what type of weapon was tested, comes as talks with the US over the North’s nuclear program stall

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a test site to supervise a “newly developed ultramodern weapon”, according to state media, marking the first announcement of continued weapons development since he began a rapprochement with the United States and South Korea earlier this year.

    The Korean Central News Agency did not specify the exact type of weapon or when the test occurred, but the public declaration comes as talks with the US over the North’s nuclear program stall. North Korea has said it would suspend nuclear and missile tests as part of its push to improve relations with Washington, and Kim has said he is focused on improving the North’s crippled economy.

    After seeing the power of the tactical weapon, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was so excited to say that another great work was done by the defence scientists and munitions industrial workers to increase the defence capability of the country,” the report said.

    State media said the project was begun under Kim’s father, former leader Kim Jong-il, and that the younger Kim “missed Kim Jong-il very much while seeing the great success of its test”.

    A single photo accompanying the story showed Kim surrounded by military leaders taking notes, and no weapons were pictured. The last weapons test to be publicly announced was the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017, before a dramatic thaw in tensions on the Korean peninsula.

    A spokesperson for the US state department said the US was confident that Kim would keep to the agreement made during during his summit with Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

    “We remain confident that the promises made by President Trump and Chairman Kim will be fulfilled,” the spokesman said in a statement.

    Despite the lack of progress in nuclear talks, US and North Korean officials are still working toward a second meeting between Kim and Donald Trump, and many observers believe it is the best opportunity for a breakthrough. Vice President Mike Pence said North Korea would not need to submit a list of its nuclear and missile inventory before a second summit, but that it would be a priority at the meeting.

  21. #18
    In an apparently conciliatory gesture, North Korea also announced on Friday it was releasing an American citizen detained since October after he "illegally" entered North Korea from China.
    Pyongyang identified the man as Bruce Byron Lowrance.
    The State Department declined to identify the citizen and did not provide details about him. But in a statement on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the U.S. negotiating effort with North Korea, thanked North Korea and Sweden for cooperating to secure the release.
    North Korea has held previous American detainees for longer, and Washington has accused Pyongyang of using them as bargaining chips.

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-kor...024024410.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Last two scheduled meetings were cancelled due to no progress on weapons negotiations. Now the US backed off their demand that Korea provide a list of their facilities as a condition for this meeting. After their first meeting, Trump proclaimed that any nuclear threat by North Korea had already been eliminated.




    https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/polit...ses/index.html
    Yet the headlines this week in the New York Times and other major U.S. outlets scream of a “great deception” by the North Koreans, evidenced by a hardline think tank — helmed in part by Victor Cha — “discovering” North Korean missile facilities already long known to U.S. intelligence (Cha’s lo-rez commercial satellite photos are dated March, months before the Trump-Kim summit, so everyone who mattered already knew.)
    In a matter of a few paragraphs, Cha and the Times blow this “discovery” up to announce, without any evidence, “What everybody is worried about is that Trump is going to accept a bad deal — they give us a single test site and dismantle a few other things, and in return they get a peace agreement” that formally ends the Korean War. Mr. Trump, he said, “would then declare victory, say he got more than any other American president ever got, and the threat would still be there.”
    What is the real state of diplomacy on the Korean peninsula? Are we again heading toward the lip of war?
    Of course not. South Korea’s presidential spokesperson put those “new” missile facilities into the perspective Trump’s critics lack, saying “North Korea has never promised to shut down this missile base. It has never signed any agreement, any negotiation that makes shutting down missile bases mandatory… There is no agreement, no negotiation that makes it necessary for it to be declared.” In other words, there can be no deception where there was no agreement.
    To call what the Times discovered a “deception” is deeply misleading. The Singapore declaration and the inter-Korean summit declarations of April 27 and September 19 this year do not commit Pyongyang to disclose the sites. What is new to the Times is actually old news; Kim Jong Un in his January 2018 New Year’s Day guidance stated North Korea would shift to the mass producing nuclear weapons in such facilities. “The nuclear weapons research sector and the rocket industry should mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles, the power and reliability of which have already been proved to the full, to give a spur to the efforts for deploying them for action,” Kim said. The Times in fact more or less acknowledged all this in September, before being suprised by it in November.
    And the Times’ big scary takeaway, that the old/new facilities are in caves, confuses tactical concealment with some sort of nefarious political “deception.” Did they expect the missiles to be worked on in the parking lot outside Kim’s villa?


    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-flavor-neocon
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  23. #20

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by enhanced_deficit View Post
    North Korea Says It Has Tested ‘Ultramodern Tactical Weapon’

    [IMG]https://static01.********/images/2018/11/17/sports/17nkorea-1/merlin_146904945_b43e5e8e-b15c-447d-b7ce-3b9b2a8a451e-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upsc ale[/IMG]
    Bluster. Not even a hint of what this amazing weapon is. If it was real, they would be showing it off to impress their people and the world with their amazing new powers.

  25. #22
    U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that a joint military exercise with South Korea called "Foal Eagle" would be reduced in scope next year so it does not harm diplomatic efforts with North Korea."Foal Eagle is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy," Mattis told reporters.
    The Foal Eagle field exercise, which usually involves thousands of combined ground, air, naval and special operations troops, takes place every spring.
    Mattis did not provide details on what a scaled back version of the exercise would entail.

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-south-k...192918841.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  26. #23
    North Korea's goal is to ease or remove sanctions without giving up anything militarily. They will make the minimum token moves to achieve that. China and South Korea have been complying with easing them. I see the US is going to resume war games.

    https://www.npr.org/2018/11/19/66862...ump-kim-summit

    North Korea Denuclearization Plan Has Gone Nowhere Since Trump-Kim Summit

    After meeting with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore this past June, President Trump was effusive.

    "Our conversation was open, honest, direct and very, very productive," he said. "We produced something that is beautiful."

    But after five months of canceled meetings and muted statements of dissatisfaction by both countries, experts say there is no sign of progress toward the Singapore goal of so-called "denuclearization" of the North.

    "I think right now, we are absolutely stuck," says Sue Mi Terry, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Terry and others trace the source of the problem to the "beautiful" document signed in June by Trump and Kim. Known as the Singapore Declaration, it laid out, in the broadest terms, how the U.S. and North Korea could learn to get along.

    In just over 400 words, it says that the U.S. will normalize relations with North Korea in exchange for "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." But it does not specify a process or even an order in which these goals would occur.

    Since the summit, North Korea has said normalization must start before denuclearization, while the U.S. maintains that the North must hand over its nuclear weapons before any normalization can begin.

    "We are asking North Korea to move first, and North Korea is asking the United States to take the next step," Terry says.

    As a result, the situation looks very similar to how it did in June.

    Last week, Terry's colleagues published satellite photos showing an operating North Korean missile base near the South Korean border. The U.S. wants North Korea to declare such bases, but the North has so far refused to do so.

    Meanwhile, Kim has urged the U.S. to drop sanctions ahead of denuclearization activities, but the U.S. refuses to budge.

    "We're at an impasse where we're not going to give North Korea what they want, and the North Koreans are not giving us what we want," says Jung Pak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Each week that passes without progress "really lays bare the anemic nature" of the Singapore Declaration, she says.
    More at link.

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    North Korea's goal is to ease or remove sanctions without giving up anything militarily. They will make the minimum token moves to achieve that. China and South Korea have been complying with easing them. I see the US is going to resume war games.

    https://www.npr.org/2018/11/19/66862...ump-kim-summit



    More at link.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  29. #25
    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is likely to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in January or February and that three sites for their second meeting are under consideration."We're getting along very well. We have a good relationship," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a G20 summit in Argentina.
    Trump added that at some point he will invite Kim to the United States.

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-say...--finance.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  30. #26
    Will they actually have anything to discuss?

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no...ump-2018-11-23

    North Korea’s Kim Jong Un continues to outmaneuver Donald Trump

    North Korea still hasn’t made any real concessions

    ATLANTA (Project Syndicate) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is eager to hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Since their first meeting in Singapore in June, Kim has consistently outmaneuvered his counterpart. Trump may still fancy himself a world-class deal maker, but the truth is that Kim — like Russian President Vladimir Putin — has got Trump’s number.

    Kim’s bonhomie (real or feigned) and promises of denuclearization have muted Trump’s threats, brought the South Korean government closer to his side, and eroded international sanctions against his regime. Kim has accomplished all of this without diminishing his regime’s nuclear capacity, and he appears to have continued ballistic-missile development at 16 hidden sites. Having gone from nuclear-armed pariah to presidential negotiating partner, it is little wonder that Kim would want a second summit to consolidate his newfound international legitimacy and position in the global limelight.

    Kim has already outdone his forebears. His father and grandfather both tried and failed to create a high-level channel to the U.S. government. The relationship that Kim has forged with Trump is thus a historic and personal success. After six reclusive years in power, the 35-year-old scion of North Korea’s dynastic regime has made a remarkable debut on the world stage, both managing an erratic, ego-driven president and setting the terms of the negotiations.

    By contrast, the Trump administration has little to show for its efforts. Since the Singapore summit, U.S. officials have reportedly been pushing the Kim regime to lay out a path to denuclearization. But the North Koreans have refused to turn over even the most basic facts about their arsenal. This stonewalling suggests that Kim has read Trump well. As Trump himself contends, “I am the only one that matters.”

    Trump’s narcissism, hunger for the spotlight and desperation to match former President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize are all that Kim needs to know about the man. The only question is how far Trump will go to secure something that he can hawk as an unprecedented deal with North Korea. By agreeing to another summit while slow-rolling preliminary talks, Kim is reconnoitering Trump’s bottom line.

    Recall that, as its upfront price for serious denuclearization talks, the North initially pushed for diplomatic steps, such as a treaty to end to the Korean War. In Singapore, Trump promised to do just that, surprising American allies and U.S. officials alike. Then, in talks last month with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Kim upped the ante by also calling for an end to the international sanctions against his regime. No doubt, Kim is hoping that Trump’s impulsiveness will lead him to fold. This month, Kim’s foreign ministry issued a public threat that North Korea could restart its weapons program if the U.S. does not soften its position on sanctions.

    As Pompeo pursues further talks in Pyongyang this month, Kim will surely hold his ground. Since declaring in June that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat”, Trump has backpedaled on virtually all of his demands, dropped his draconian deadlines, and failed even to hint that Kim’s foot-dragging is a cause for concern. In October, Pompeo made no headway toward defining even the basic vocabulary of a future agreement. According to officials who are familiar with the talks, on at least two occasions, the North Koreans asked him if he wanted to step out and call his boss. As matters stand, the Kim regime and the U.S. have yet to agree on the definition of terms such as “denuclearization,” “verifiable,” and “irreversible.”

    To be sure, playing Trump and reneging on promised steps toward denuclearization has its risks. In May, Trump temporarily canceled the Singapore meeting in response to North Korean statements, and he did the same with talks between Pompeo and the North Koreans in August. There is no guarantee that he will not repeat that gambit.

    And yet, even if he does, Kim’s own penchant for drama — from firing missiles over Japan to carrying out frequent purges at home — suggests that he knows how to command the stage and bring Trump to the table. Moreover, his ego-stroking personal letters to Trump show that he has a good fix on the president’s psyche. So far, he has proved to be highly effective at keeping the bromance alive, and the forthcoming summit on track.

    Regardless of when the second summit occurs, the North Korean regime will continue to reap dividends at America’s expense in the meantime. Trump’s cancellation of two major U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises already has commanders from both countries worried about their military readiness. And international support for economic sanctions — particularly on the part of China and Russia — has been steadily eroding since even before the Singapore summit.

    With a fourth 2018 summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in now in the works, it is clear that Moon’s political future is tied to rapprochement. During his October trip to Europe, Moon lobbied hard for the easing of sanctions, reflecting his government’s desire to engage, not embargo, the North.

    It is time for the self-described master of the “art of the deal” to admit that he doesn’t have one. Trump prefers hype to the hard work of hammering out arms-control agreements, so controlling his craving for the spotlight will not be easy. Nonetheless, when it comes to Kim, a bit of 54-year-old wisdom from Barry Goldwater, another outsider-turned-Republican Party icon, still applies: “The only summit meeting that can succeed is the one that doesn’t take place.”

  31. #27
    LOL

    Kim has gotten almost nothing out of DJTvsg.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  32. #28
    Isn't it time for next peace summit with NK?

    They have been firing too many rockets lately.


    August 2, 2019

    Kim Jong-un is making up for lost time testing his shorter range systems:

    North Korea launched what appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), Friday, in its third test in just over a week.
    The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said two unidentified projectiles were launched ― one each at 2:59 a.m. and 3:23 a.m. ― from the Yonghung area in South Hamgyong Province into the East Sea.
    The projectiles had a lower than usual altitude at 25 kilometers, and travelled 220 kilometers at a maximum speed of Mach 6.9.
    The JCS did not specify whether the projectiles were SRBMs; but some officers said their flight characteristics were similar to that of two launched July 31.

    Citing the South Korean and U.S. military intelligence, Cheong Wa Dae said the projectiles were likely newly developed SRBMs the North has been testing in recent weeks.

    Korea Times

  33. #29



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