Mike Pompeo met with KJU 3-4 times during his 3-day stay in Pyongyang per Asahi Shimbun. KJU reportedly said he's on the same wavelength with Pompeo: "This is the first time I'm meeting someone who has the same fire in the belly as I do" (loose translation)https://t.co/frgRdVqTmj
I hope Kim Jong-un is sincere about this, but I remain extremely skeptical:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is said to have sent his message to the Trump administration that he would accept a denuclearization verification and intensive inspection by international inspectors including the International Atomic Energy Agency’s visit to its nuclear facilities. Kim, who announced that the regime would shutter a nuclear site in Punggye-ri over the weekend, is reported to have made more detailed reference to the possible inspection and verification for denuclearization. With the upcoming bilateral summit between Washington and Pyongyang, the negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will go more smoothly.
CIA director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo secretly met with Kim earlier this month to lay the groundwork for direct North Korea-U.S. talks under the condition of the regime’s complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, South Korea’s intelligence agency said on Monday. Acting as a special envoy for Trump, Pompeo strongly urged North Korea to allow an international verification procedure to check that regime dismantles the nuclear program.
Kim reportedly said he would freeze the nuclear program, report any nuclear activities, and allow international inspectors to visit its facilities only if Washington engages in sincere negotiations, according to observations by South Korea’s intelligence agency. Pompeo is reported to have raised the need for intensive verification procedure in a short period time, citing that North Korea previously expelled IAEA inspectors. He also said inspectors may have to carry out a special inspection into nuclear facilities additionally, if necessary. Kim is said to have not raised any objection to these demands. On the timing and scope of nuclear inspections, Kim will, however, make more cautious decisions after taking into deep consideration what he will gain in return. [Donga Ilbo]
Ri Myong-su (in the red circle), chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, is seen dozing off at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party on April 20, 2018, in this image captured from North Korea’s Korean Central Television on April 22. Jo Yon-jun (in the blue circle), head of the Workers’ Party of Korea Inspection Commission, glares at Ri. (Yonhap)
It looks like people are slowly catching on to what I said when Kim Jong-un’s nuclear test suspension remarks were hailed as some kind of major breakthrough when it isn’t:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from left at the podium, presides over a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang on Friday. Kim declared the North will stop all nuclear and missile tests and close down its underground nuclear test site at the meeting. [RODONG SINMUN]North Korea’s announcement Friday that it will stop all nuclear and missile tests was welcomed by the South and the United States, but some critics say the statement didn’t actually indicate any interest in denuclearization from the recalcitrant state.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was quoted in a lengthy report released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency Saturday as saying that no such tests were necessary anymore, “given that the work for mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets was finished as the whole processes of developing nuclear weapons were carried out in a scientific way and in regular sequence.”
Kim said North Korea, starting immediately, will never use nuclear weapons nor transfer nuclear weapons or nuclear technology under any circumstances unless the country faces a nuclear provocation or threat.
The North will also “facilitate close contact and active dialogue” with neighboring countries and international society in order to guarantee the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the world by creating an “international environment favorable for socialist economic construction,” Kim said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but there has been nothing done so far by the Kim regime different from what they have done before. Everything they are doing is from their standard playbook and the Korean left and international media is largely playing along with it. I’ll start getting hopeful when international inspectors are allowed to go in and monitor their nuclear facilities and artillery and troops are withdrawn from the DMZ. Until concrete actions like this are taken this is just more of the same.
A country with active gulags is lecturing Israel on human rights abuses:
The son of Salam Rabaa, the Palestinian owner of Rabaa restaurant, gestures with his right hand imitating a poster of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the gate of the venue premises in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip on December 17, 2017. The sign at the entrance of the restaurant reads in Arabic: “Special discounts reaching up to 80 percent for Korean patrons, in appraisal of the role of the Korean leader towards our Palestinian cause.” MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea has condemned the U.S. and its alliance with Israel, which continued to experience deadly clashes between security forces and Palestinian protestors.
On Friday, the official Korean Central News Agency called the U.S. out for repeatedly defending Israel from criticism at the United Nations Human Rights Council, which U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley once called “a haven for dictators” and has threatened to pull the U.S. out of. Palestinians have threatened to lodge a complaint with the international body over rising casualties as Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on Palestinian demonstrators near the Gaza border, where dozens have been killed and thousands injured since violent protests erupted over Israel’s historic and ongoing seizure of land.
“Israel’s wild act of destroying Mid-east peace and mercilessly killing Palestinians is a hideous crime that deserves denunciations thousands of times,” the state-run agency said of a commentary by North Korean Cabinet paper Minju Joson. [Newsweek]
Kim Jong-un announcement of suspending nuclear tests is making big news internationally:
North Korea says its quest for nuclear weapons is “complete” and it “no longer needs” to test its weapons capability, a significant development ahead of diplomatic engagement with both South Korea and the United States.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Saturday that “under the proven condition of complete nuclear weapons, we no longer need any nuclear tests, mid-range and intercontinental ballistic rocket tests, and that the nuclear test site in northern area has also completed its mission,” as quoted by the state-run KCNA news agency.
The announcement appears to signify a remarkable change in policy for Kim, following a relentless pursuit of nuclear and ballistic weapons as a means to ensure his regime’s survival — although some analysts remain skeptical, pointing out that Kim hasn’t tested a missile since last November. [CNN]
You can read much more at the link, but remember we have been down this road before with Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Both of them suspended nuclear programs for international aid and look where we are at today. Also notice the rhetoric Kim Jong-un is using, he is saying the testing is “complete” and no longer needed; not that he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart for North-South cooperation.
Oleg Shcheka takes a look at the risks involved with the civilian side of the #DPRK nuclear program, and whether sacrificing safety for construction speed may lead to unintended disasterhttps://t.co/xJTPom5tGq
Pyongyang’s goal might be to negotiate away our missile defenses, air power & nuclear umbrella while keeping plenty of American targets in range as hostages. It wd give S Koreans a false sense of security as their gov't gives in to NK’s political demands. https://t.co/WLLlno5U8L
