Here is the latest response by President Trump to critics of his North Korea policy:
President Trump speaks to reporters on the North Lawn of the White House on June 15, 2018. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
President Trump on Tuesday brushed aside questions over whether his assertion that he “solved” the crisis with North Korea was premature amid reports its leader, Kim Jong Un, is trying to conceal parts of its nuclear weapons program.
“Many good conversations with North Korea — it is going well!” Trump tweeted. “In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining.”
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Trump’s brash declaration comes two days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to travel to North Korea to meet with Kim — his third trip to the rogue nuclear nation. [Yahoo News]
How long have we been hearing that North Korea is going to open up just like China?:
Jim Rogers
Legendary investor Jim Rogers said Monday that the world will face serious economic problems over the next few years, but North Korea’s opening will create a huge economic opportunity for South Korea.
The global guru made the remarks during a press briefing in Seoul hosted by major local brokerage Samsung Securities.
“Many of your trading partners are going to suffer. But you have this opening up, and if you remember what happened in China as it opened and changed, that is going to happen here and you will be the major beneficiary,” the American businessman said.
Pointing out that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spent his early days in Switzerland and has ample knowledge about the outside world, Rogers projected that Kim will surely open up his economy.
“North Korea has lots of disciplined, educated, very cheap labor and a lot of natural resources. And [South Korea] has lots of capital, management ability and expertise,” he said, adding that the marriage of those factors will create synergy effects to make South Korea “the most exciting country in the world over the next 10 to 20 years.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but what Mr. Rogers seems to forget is that China opened up after the death of Mao Zedong which ended the cult of personality in China. The cult of personality is still alive and well in North Korea with the Kim regime. A Chinese style opening of the economy would threaten the stability of the Kim regime.
Harry Harris, during his Senate confirmation hearing, talked about bringing #KimJongUn to his senses and not to his knees. Unfortunately, to bring Kim to his senses we have to bring him to his knees.
Good luck with this because I am very skeptical this will happen:
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday the U.S. has a plan that would lead to the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in a year.
John Bolton said top U.S. diplomat Mike Pompeo will be discussing that plan with North Korea in the near future. Bolton added that it would be to the North’s advantage to cooperate to see sanctions lifted quickly and aid from South Korea and Japan start to flow.
Bolton’s remarks on CBS’ “Face the Nation” appeared to be the first time the Trump administration had publicly suggested a timeline for North Korea to fulfill the commitment leader Kim Jong Un made at a summit with President Donald Trump last month for the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. [Stars & Stripes]
As I have been saying the North Koreans want the lifting of sanctions to occur for little to nothing in return. Clearly Emperor President Xi and Czar President Putin are onboard with this position. The only thing standing in their way right now is President Trump:
North Korea appears to be seeking a lifting of international sanctions imposed on the country by using its longtime ally, China, as leverage.
North Korea is shifting its focus toward economic development, and for that goal, sanctions relief and economic cooperation with other countries will be essential. While it is creating the atmosphere by offering peace through the inter-Korean and the Washington-Pyongyang summits, it seems the North believes China can speed up the process.
Last week, the Japanese media reported China and Russia submitted a statement to the U.N. Security Council seeking the lifting of sanctions on North Korea.
It was reportedly dismissed due to U.S. opposition, which stated North Korea’s denuclearization would have to make progress first.
“China does not regard lifting the sanctions as an end in itself ― the Security Council should support and cooperate in the current mood of dialogue and efforts toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said in a press briefing, Friday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but does anyone think President Trump will eventually fold and allow sanctions relief without any real denuclearization efforts by the Kim regime?
It looks like this is turning into yet another event where the North Koreans milk money out of the South Koreans:
A South Korean delegation arrives at the eastern Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Office in Gangwon Province on June 29, 2018, after visiting North Korea to check facilities for the reunions of separated families slated for August. (Yonhap)
North Korean facilities to host the planned August reunions of separated families during the 1950-1953 Korean War are in need of major repairs, a South Korean inspection team said upon returning home on Friday after a three-day visit there.
The 20-strong inspection team involving South Korean government officials and civilian workers crossed the eastern border on Wednesday afternoon to visit Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast, the venue for the reunions slated for Aug. 20-26.
“South and North technicians did the inspection together, which went smoothly with active support from North Korean officials,” said team leader Kim Byung-dae, a senior official in charge of humanitarian cooperation at the Unification Ministry.
“It’s been quite a while since the last reunion happened in October 2015 there. So there are many places that need fixing,” Kim said, adding the government will do its best to make sure the reunion runs smoothly and to minimize any inconvenience for senior family members. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the bill for these “major repairs” is going to be?
If anyone thought were going to stop all their nuclear programs because of a summit then they have no knowledge of past negotiations with the Kim regime. Additionally here we go again with intelligence officials leaking classified information to the media:
As President Donald Trump touted a new era of diplomacy with the North Korean regime, a classified intelligence assessment appeared to tell a different story, according to several US intelligence officials.
The assessment revealed that, in recent months, North Korea had upped its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at several secret sites, according to over a dozen intelligence officials cited in an NBC News report published Friday. The officials said they believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be trying to conceal the secret facilities from the US.
“Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” one senior US intelligence official said to NBC News. “We are watching closely.”
According to five US officials cited by NBC News, the North Korean regime was increasing production of enriched uranium, even as relations with the US improved following the 2018 Winter Olympics. And since the leaders of both countries held a summit in Singapore in mid-June, the Trump administration has already delivered some concessions to the North. [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link, but it only makes sense that the North Koreans are going to rush to increase the amount of fuel and weapons they have to maximize their bargaining position. Like I have always said I seriously doubt the regime will completely denuclearize.
On a side note, I do find it interesting how the media now is highly critical of North Korean double dealing when during past negotiations many in the media made excuses for North Korean double dealing.
This is why South Korea dreads a collapse of the Kim regime:
Sammy Hyun is now a US citizen and has lived in the US since 2007 – and he considers himself to be ‘lucky’. Photograph: Noah Smith for the Guardian
When Chang Ho Kim was living in North Korea, information trickled in from China about the world outside the closed country. Through the lens of pirated movies, he says, America had looked to Kim like “a very rich and luxurious place”.
Defectors from the North automatically become South Korean citizens after a mandatory three-month transition that is part debriefing, part re-education. Most North Korean defectors in the South stand out, and the Kims were no exception. They have distinct accents, and are often shorter and slighter with darker, sallow skin from years of malnutrition. It’s hard to avoid South Koreans’ prejudice and suspicions that North Koreans are spies.
Remembering the Hollywood images of the US, the Kims decided to make their way to the US illegally through a broker.
But for the Kims, and others like them, life in the US is not necessarily easier.
The American celluloid dream comes with skyrocketing price tags. North Koreans arrive with little or no experience of bills, rent, and no means to cope with the lack of social services and health insurance that illegal immigrants must navigate.
“American life is so hard. Money, money, money,” said Pastor Young Gu Kim, an evangelical South Korean immigrant who helps defectors. “Some defectors told me, ‘Oh pastor, sometimes I miss it over there.’”
Like Chang Ho Kim, many North Koreans enter illegally and settle in Los Angeles, amid the large population of ethnic Koreans. Nearly 200 former North Koreans live in Los Angeles, advocacy groups say, but exact numbers are unknown. [The Guardian]
You can read more at the link, but North Koreans are not socialized to live in a western society that largely demands individual initiative to work hard and make money to support ones self. Imagine if millions of North Koreans showed up in South Korea instead of the small trickle that currently exists if the regime was to collapse. The social problems this would cause would be enormous and thus why the ROK government is pushing a policy of gradual reunification instead of regime collapse.
As Congress passes the North Korea Human Rights Reauthorization Act, @HouseForeign Chmn Ed Royce writes, "Seoul’s recent efforts to silence North Korean human rights advocates are counterproductive and deeply disturbing.” https://t.co/TrMBfyd1ES via @houseforeign
