Considering how the Kim regime has received large rewards for little to nothing in return from past nuclear agreements, they have lost all benefit of the doubt from the Trump administration:
Mike Pompeo
The United States will not reward North Korea before the regime “permanently, irreversibly” dismantles its nuclear weapons program, the nominee to be the top U.S. diplomat said Thursday.
Mike Pompeo, the nominee for U.S. secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing that the Trump administration does not plan to repeat the failures of past negotiations that provided Pyongyang with economic aid before its nuclear program was undone.
“It is the intention of the president and the administration not to do that this time to make sure that before we provide rewards, we get the outcome permanently, irreversibly, that it is that we hope to achieve,” said Pompeo, who currently serves as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“It is a tall order, but I am hopeful that President Trump can achieve that through sound diplomacy,” he said. [Korea Times]
That is what is being floated as a possible reward for denuclearization:
What would the United States give North Korea in return for denuclearization?
The Trump administration is now detailing a compensation package for the Kim Jong-un regime that would significantly boost economic and diplomatic sectors, the Dong-A Ilbo daily reported on Thursday, citing government sources.
The newspaper said if the Trump-Kim summit is a success, the U.S. is willing to open a liaison office and an embassy in Pyongyang, and start humanitarian aid.
The two countries discussed the issues during working-level talks, the paper said.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s top national security adviser is visiting Washington to meet his U.S. counterpart John Bolton, the White House said. [Korea Times via a reader tip]
Here is the first major issue the US and the North Korea need to work out:
The North Koreans, in unpublicised meetings with the Americans, are saying they want Trump to see Kim in Pyongyang. The Americans, of course, do not want Trump visiting North Korea, where Kim would be in the role of a head of state receiving the American guest as a supplicant seeking his approval.
Instead, in conversations via the CIA, the Americans are pressing for the talks to be held in the capital of a third country or in the truce village of Panmunjom on the North-South line, 60km north of Seoul. That’s where South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet Kim on April 27, and the Americans see no reason why Kim cannot go to Panmunjom for his summit with Trump, tentatively agreed upon to take place in May.
The Americans see the idea of Trump going to Pyongyang as another attempt on the part of Kim and his team of strategists to create obstructions to any serious attempt at negotiating an end to the North’s nuclear programme. It might seem inconceivable that Trump would go to Pyongyang to meet Kim, but what if North Korea refused to budge?
Would the result be no summit – and North and South Korea both blaming the US for refusing to accommodate North Korea’s demands? Or would North Korea, if sincerely interested in a summit, accept other suggestions? [South China Morning Post]
You can read more at the link, but I think the North Koreans are refusing to budge from holding the summit in Pyongyang because they want to first see what the Americans have to offer. If prior negotiations show the US not willing to make the concessions they want, the Kim regime can continue to demand that Pyongyang be the location of the summit in order to kill it and then blame the Americans for its failure.
If the Kim regime does continue to demand to hold the summit at Pyongyang, then I think President Trump should fly to South Korea and visit Panmunjom and tell Kim Jong-un when he will be there to put the onus back on him for not meeting him.
Wow. North Korea has just confirmed that Hwang Pyong So and Kim Ki Nam have been dismissed. Both were once trusted advisors to Kim Jong Un. But what's truly noteworthy is that North Korea is telling us about it in black and white (and in English) pic.twitter.com/FQlqHe8B4r
It looks like this may be what the upcoming negotiations come down to, what does denuclearization really mean?:
The White House is gearing up for President Trump to discuss denuclearization with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their much anticipated summit next month. But what does “denuclearization” mean?
It depends on whom you are asking. To some in Washington, “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” as Trump tweeted late last month, means Kim handing over his nuclear weapons and missile systems and allowing international inspectors to check that the regime is keeping its word.
To Pyongyang, it means something very, very different. It means mutual steps to get rid of nuclear weapons, including requiring the United States to take down the nuclear umbrella it has put up over South Korea and Japan. (……..)
At the very least, Kim would agree to relinquish his weapons only if the United States agreed to end its military alliance with South Korea, in place since the 1950-53 Korean War, Narang said. He would also likely insist the United States end its commitment to “extended deterrence” in South Korea and Japan — its threat of nuclear retaliation if its allies in Asia come under attack from North Korea. [Washington Post]
You can read more at the link, but what I think is important to realize here, is that whatever Kim Jong-un says during negotiations is what the Chinese want as well. The Kim regime has long wanted to separate the ROK from the US. Withdrawing the US military from the Korean peninsula would meet this goal. However, the Kim regime making demands to end security guarantees to Japan I think is really Beijing talking.
“The danger is entering into negotiations with unrealistic expectations that Kim is just going to hand over the keys to his nuclear kingdom. He won’t,” says @NarangVipinhttps://t.co/DbfABm9XD3
Leave it to North Korea to pile it on the already disgraced Park Geun-hye:
Supporters of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye with her portrait march during a rally to call for her release near the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea on April 6, 2018. North Korea called Park a “traitor” responsible for “extra-large hideous corruption.”
North Korea on Saturday called disgraced former South Korean President Park Geun-hye a “traitor” responsible for “extra-large hideous corruption,” in its first reaction to the sentencing of Park to 24 years in prison on corruption charges.
The insults carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the Seoul Central District Court found Park guilty on a variety of charges, including abusing her power and taking tens and millions of dollars from companies in bribes and through extortion. She had been under arrest since March last year. [Associated Press]
.@benjaminkatzeff looks into Dandong and finds that laborers are returning to the city, a sign that the Chinese may be relaxing sanctions enforcement there. Read the latest from our affiliate site North Korean Economy Watchhttps://t.co/pcixJL5Ccwpic.twitter.com/yxhCuCeq2W
Here is interesting anecdote if true from a comment made by a ROK top presidential aide to Kim Jong-un:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a heavy smoker. But in a country where making a suggestion to the young dictator of anything against his will is considered a blasphemy that deserves heavy punishment, nobody would put one’s life at risk to ask him to quit smoking. This Dec. 12, 2012 file photo shows Kim puffing a cigarette at the satellite control center in Pyongyang. / Korea Times file
Top presidential aide Chung Eui-yong advised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to stop smoking during a dinner Kim hosted for Chung visiting Pyongyang as President Moon Jae-in’s top envoy early last month.
Chung’s advice made the atmosphere at the head table in the banquet tense at least for a moment when the face of Kim Yong-chul, the North’s top intelligence officer, hardened in displeasure by Chung’s uncalled-for action.
It was Ri Sol-ju, the North’s first lady, who cheerfully clapped her hands and said, “He doesn’t listen when I ask him to quit smoking.” That defused the tension. The young leader himself did not mind Chung’s behavior.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported this account recently, quoting knowledgeable sources, about what happened at the March 5 banquet. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it was a good catch by Ri Sol-ju to break the tension with her comment. The way I look at it let Kim Jong-un smoke as well as eat away as much as he wants. His poor health may be what ultimately drives him out of power.
