Never mind that SKorea's head of national security and intelligence agency chief announced from the White House that KJU was going to denuke. Never mind that Moon Jae-in insisted NKorea wants "complete" denuclearization. Everything is John Bolton's fault. https://t.co/3NVIoNu8Yo
— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) May 22, 2018
A protester holds a banner that says, “Trump jeopardizes peace on the Korean Peninsula,” during a rally in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on May 25, 2018, to criticize the U.S. government and call for a summit with North Korea as scheduled. On May 24, U.S. President Donald Trump called off his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un scheduled for June 12, citing the North’s “tremendous anger and open hostility.” (Yonhap)
This is a bit of a slap in the face of Moon Jae-in that the Trump administration did not trust telling him of the upcoming summit cancellation:
Washington did not inform Seoul of its decision to call off its planned summit with North Korea until it was reported by media.
A high-ranking official of South Korea’s presidential office said the U.S. government notified Seoul of its move almost at the same time when it was announced to the public.
The White House was known to have first informed South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Yoon-je, who then delivered the news to the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.
According to American media outlets, the U.S. government began discussing the possibility of canceling the U.S.-North Korea summit Wednesday night local time.
The South Korean official said there were no advance discussions on the matter between Seoul and Washington. [KBS World News]
As I said yesterday, the cancellation of the Trump-Kim summit by President Trump was nothing more than part of the ongoing negotiations. Well it looks like the Kim regime got the message from the Trump administration that the usual games they played during past negotiations will not be tolerated:
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump cancelling the June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss the regime’s denuclearization, it appears a meeting could take place not too far in the future, as both sides seem willing to engage in dialogue.
North Korea, unlike its usual hard-line stance, expressed regret over the cancellation and said it is open to talks at anytime, so the ball is again in the U.S.’s court.
After Trump’s announcement late Thursday, North Korea stated that it had a “willingness to resolve issues through dialogue, whenever and through whatever means.” The statement was made by North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, reported by the Korean Central News Agency the following morning. [Korea Times]
Who can remember a time when the Kim regime has been this conciliatory for talks? The only time that comes to mind was during the Banco Delta Asia incident where they were desperate to get the millions of dollars frozen by the US Treasury Department back. The Kim regime played nice until they got what they wanted and then eventually returned to conducting provocations.
It is pretty clear the Trump administration is trying to change this dynamic and the President today is signaling that the summit can still happen if North Korea changes its tone:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could still take place June 12, after cancelling the summit a day earlier.
“We’re going to see what happens. We’re talking to them right now. It could even be the 12th,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House. (….)
“Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea,” he wrote. “We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!” [Yonhap]
I guess we will see what happens, but it is good to see the Kim regime for once on the defensive when it comes to negotiations.
I would have to think this guy must have some mental issues or was drunk for killing someone for being too loud:
A man surnamed Lee in his 40s has been arrested by police for allegedly killing his neighbor who “made too much noise” at night.
Busan Saha Police Station said Tuesday that it is investigating the man on the charge of murder.
The suspect is accused of stabbing a 31-year-old who lived in the same apartment building in Saha-gu, Busan, around 2 a.m. Tuesday. He was caught red-handed after the victim’s friend filed a report to police.
The victim was sent to a nearby hospital but died in the middle of surgery around 6 a.m. Tuesday. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but apparently the neighbor was being loud with his friends in front of the apartment while waiting for a taxi.
“Bibimbap,” a traditional Korean dish of mixed rice and vegetables, is served to UAE officials and journalists during an Iftar dinner at the Korean embassy in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on May 23, 2018, in this photo courtesy of the South Korean embassy in the UAE. Iftar is the first evening meal at the end of fasting during Ramadan. (Yonhap)
Here is the play-by-play of the Punggye-ri dog and pony show:
Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
North Korea destroyed its only known nuclear test site with a series of explosions over several hours on Thursday, taking an initial step toward denuclearization, according to South Korean journalists visiting the area.
The North dynamited the North Portal, also referred to as Tunnel No. 2, at Punggye-ri, a northeastern remote area, at around 11 a.m., they said in a brief pool report delivered by phone.
Two other tunnels were destroyed at 2:17 p.m., followed by the explosion of barracks, observation towers and other facilities on the ground.
The blasts ended at 4:17 p.m., the journalists said without clarifying whether Tunnel No. 1, or the East Portal, was removed as well. Among the four tunnels in the zone, the East Portal was evidently abandoned earlier, according to 38 North, a U.S.-based website.
Plumes of smoke soon covered the mountain.
Reporters and television crews from the United States, China, Russia and Britain were also invited to witness the ceremony.
They filmed the spectacle, but footage is expected to be available only after they return to Wonsan, the North’s eastern coastal city, presumably on Friday morning. [Yonhap]
As I have long said the closure of the nuclear test site is largely meaningless because if they decide they need to conduct more tests they can just dig another shaft at a time of their choosing.
President Trump has completely flipped the script on the Kim regime. The North Koreans are used to being the ones canceling talks and making the other parties make concessions to get them to come back:
President Donald Trump called off his summit with Kim Jong-un on Thursday after North Korea hurled insults at Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to hold talks at this time after the Kim regime again tested the limits of his patience.
‘You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never be used,’ he said in a letter to Kim that the White House distributed.
North Korea‘s vice foreign minister had slammed Pence for his ‘unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya.’
Choe Son Hui also said the future of the summit between Pyongyang and Washington is ‘entirely’ up to the United States, as she condemned an interview Pence gave to Fox News.
Trump said in his letter to Kim that as a result of the ‘tremendous anger and open hostility’ demonstrated by North Korea in the latest back and forth, he was pulling out of the June 12 meeting to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
‘I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,’ Trump said hours after North Korea publicly destroyed much of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. ‘Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.’
The U.S. president went on to say that he hopes to meet Kim one day and that the good dialogue that was building up between the two nations prior to the recent provocations remains promising.
Trump’s letter to Kim followed a string of threats from the North to call off the summit that had been brokered to discuss a commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The president told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that he’d know whether he was moving forward with the Singapore summit ‘next week.’ That was before North Korea’s latest volley, which included the assault on Pence.
‘We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,’ said Choe Son Hui, according to a report by North Korea’s central news agency on Thursday.
She added: ‘I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president. [Daily Mail]
You can read more at the link, but here is the letter that President Trump sent to Kim Jong-un:
I look at this as not being a cancellation of the talks, but instead part of the ongoing negotiations. The Trump administration has put North Korea in its place by reminding them who they are and who they are dealing with; thus the description in the difference in nuclear capabilities in the letter. I also think the message being sent is that the United States will not be pushed around by the North Koreans and they should be respectful towards the Trump administration and thankful for the opportunity to meet with the US President. This is especially true considering President Trump has made very respectful remarks towards Kim Jong-un and even the cancellation letter is extremely polite towards Kim Jong-un.
We are about to see how serious the Kim regime is about holding these talks and reaching a denuclearization deal because the ball is now officially in their court. President Trump’s letter leaves it very open for a future meeting if the Kim regime changes its tone. If they apologize for the remarks towards Vice President Pence that is a signal that they really do want a deal. However, if they begin another launch cycle or execute a provocation of some kind then that is a sign they were never serious about these talks in the first place.
However, it was good to see that for once the United States got something out of North Korea, the release of the three American detainees for little to nothing in return. It is usually the other way around where the US and South Korea makes concessions to North Korea for little to nothing in return. Once again President Trump has flipped the script on the Kim regime. It will be interesting to see how the North Koreans respond.
Here is another strange brain injury inflicted on a US diplomat, this time in China:
US officials have issued a health alert in China after a US government employee stationed there reported “abnormal sensations of sound and pressure” that indicated a mild brain injury.
The US State Department is looking into whether the incident is a “sonic attack,” a US diplomatic official told CNN, similar to what happened in Cuba in 2016 and 2017, which led to a reduction in staffing at the nation’s US embassy in Havana.
The official who fell ill was assigned to the city of Guangzhou in southern China and reported a range of physical symptoms from late 2017 through to April 2018, the State Department said. The employee was sent back to the United States for assessment. The US Embassy in Beijing learned on May 18 that the clinical findings of the evaluation matched that of a “mild traumatic brain injury,” an embassy spokeswoman told CNN.
A US Diplomatic official told CNN the State Department “is looking into whether this is a sonic attack, similar to what happened in Cuba.” CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs but has not yet received a response on this matter. [CNN]
You can read more at the link, but it is believed that the sonic attacks in Cuba were caused possibly by a flawed spying device. So whatever the spying device being used in Cuba was maybe it came from China and this same device malfunctioned there as well?
