Tag: United States

I wonder what burger joint Trump would hold this proposed summit at?  Would Dennis Rodman be invited?:

 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday he would “accept” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the United States and hold nuclear negotiations with him while eating hamburgers, according to news reports.

“If he came here, I’d accept him,” Trump said during campaigning in Atlanta, reaffirming his willingness to meet with the North’s leader, according to reports. “Who the hell cares? I’ll talk to anybody.”

Trump first expressed his willingness to meet with Kim in an interview last month, drawing criticism not only from critics, but also from his own party that such a meeting would end up bolstering the dictator.

But while Trump has insisted on his willingness to speak to the North’s leader, but said he won’t go to the North for such talks.

Should Kim visit the U.S., Trump said he won’t throw him a state dinner.

“I wouldn’t give him a state dinner like China or all these other nations who are ripping us off,” Trump was quoted as saying. “We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table and making better deals.”

Trump said he will only “make a good deal” if he were to hold talks with the North’s leader.

The real-estate tycoon was also quoted as saying that there’s a “10 percent or 20 percent chance” he could talk Kim out of developing nuclear weapons.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think Donald Trump is over estimating his negotiating skills if he thinks he has up to a 20% chance of talking Kim out of developing nuclear weapons.  The only deal I can see  that would convince the Kim regime of stopping their nuclear weapons development would be to allow them to conquer South Korea.  This is obviously something the US would never agree to so what deal does Trump have in mind that would convince them?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out because it appears that the Chinese are all in, in regards to their South China Sea claims, is the US and its regional allies all in as well to deter them?

As a rising power, China is roughly charting the same course the Americans and Soviets did 50 years ago. China has land-based missiles, bombers, and missile submarines. And China is establishing its own bastion — in the South China Sea. This sea grab is a logical response to China’s strategic dilemma.

China’s coming submarine deployment is allegedly in response to the deployment of the American THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea. While it is true that the U.S. is deploying THAAD on the Korean peninsula, the system can only be used against missiles targeting South Korea — coming from China’s ally, North Korea. China’s explanation is designed to make Beijing look like the victim. But China, which has its main submarine missile base adjacent to the South China Sea, has been preparing to sail its missile submarines there for years.

China’s aggression in the South China Sea is not likely merely for aggression’s sake, or the result of a rising power feeling its oats. China is acting out of strategic necessity, something even more dangerous because it feels it is doing something because it must, not simply because it can. The ruling Chinese Communist Party has made the calculation that the strategic benefits — having a safe location for its nuclear missile submarines — outweighs the negative attention the country is receiving worldwide.

What does that mean? It means that Beijing is not going to back down. Chinese nuclear weapons, which are the ultimate guarantor of Communist Party rule, are involved, and anything crucial to the survival of the regime is non-negotiable. Barring a new nuclear strategy — perhaps one that rules out submarines and relies on land-based missiles hidden in tunnels — controlling the sea is a must. Beijing has access to other stretches of the Pacific, but they can be easily accessed by traditional rivals including Taiwan and Japan. The South China Sea, for example, is adjacent to a number of relatively poor, weak states.  [The Week]

You can read the rest at the link.

Is the below nonsense really the focus now of America’s colleges?  If so, no wonder college graduates today are having such a hard time finding a job.  When I was in college I spent too much time working and studying to get one of the dreaded STEM degrees to have time to worry about “safe spaces’ and “trigger warnings”:

Just as the social turmoil of the 1960s generated new vocabulary — turn-on, sit-in, sexism — this latest wave of activism and upheaval is adding to our lexicon, with terms such as safe space, trigger warning, microaggression and cultural appropriation, which we explore here. We asked student leaders and activists from local universities to define these terms for us and to elaborate based on their own thoughts and experiences.

Many students believe these concepts foster inclusion, increase sensitivity and set up parameters in which difficult conversations can occur and marginalized voices can be heard. But critics, both on campus and off, call the concepts limiting, unrealistic, even un-American. They argue that creating safe spaces and using trigger warnings, for example, serve only to stifle free speech, coddle students and ignore both history and the reality found off campus.  [Washington Post]

You have to read the whole thing because did you know that it is “cultural appropriation” and disrespectful to get for example braids or wear a headscarf if you are not from that culture?  So all the foreigners that come to Korea and get pictures taken in hanboks I guess are disrespectful to Koreans according to today’s American college students?

It makes me wonder if all this nonsense is going to eventually trickle into Korean universities as well?

A Korean researcher with a think tank has published an opinion article on why the South Korean government should take advantage of Trump’s offer to allow the ROK to develop nuclear weapons if he is elected President.  To break the status quo on the Korean peninsula it would take a policy that has the potential to really shake up the current security paradigm which the ROK developing nuclear weapons would definitely do:

Rather than criticizing Trump, Korea may announcethat it would not develop at this time, but prepare for development of nuclear and anti-nuclear weapons. While seriouslyand feverishly working on these weapons, Korea may ask China, as well as the U.S., to strongly intervene in North Korean affairs to abandon their nuclear programs as a condition for Korea to abandon its own nuclear programs.

In view of North Korea’s progress made in developing short-range missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, Trump’s view may well providea timely diplomatic cover for Korea to really improve its defensive posture and to put heavy pressure for North Korea to negotiate.

When the opponent is as vicious and sneaky as leaders of North Korea, who made complete fools out of Bill Clinton and Kim Dae-jung as well as all of Kim Dae-jung’s successors before Park Geunjye, Korea has to negotiate from the position of strength without which North Korea will clearly not give in. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

I understand that having a nuclear weapon used against you is a horrible experience, but the two atomic bombs were a key factor in ending World War II which ultimately brought independence to the entire Korean peninsula:

A group of South Korean victims of the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Thursday demanded an apology and compensation from both the United States and Japan.

“Nuclear bombs were dropped and Koreans in Japan at the time were victims,” a shelter for bombing victims in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, said in a press release.

The demand comes as U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima later this month, making him the first sitting American president to do so.

The victims pointed out that “Japan has thoroughly hid its own war crimes while only emphasizing the fact that it was victimized by the bombing.”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I recommend readers check out this link to see why I think the US has nothing to apologize for in regards to using nuclear weapons to end World War II.

That is what former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is claiming:

Bolton, currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also said the North may be trying to “reprise circumstances at the end of the Clinton administration,” referring to late 2000, when relations between Washington and Pyongyang warmed so significantly that then-President Bill Clinton even considered visiting the North.

A Clinton trip did not materialize, but a top North Korean military official paid a visit to Clinton at the White House in October 2000 and then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled to Pyongyang later that month and met with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader.

“Although Kim’s father had to be satisfied with a visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Obama would be an easier get. Kim could figure that even a farewell visit by peripatetic Secretary of State John Kerry would at least return the North to the status quo in 2000, after long years of isolation from Washington’s top leadership,” Bolton said.

The North could also be targeting Obama’s successor, he said.

“Kim may be calculating that Hillary Clinton would like a significant foreign-policy accomplishment early in her presidency, thereby demonstrating her seriousness and, early on, setting herself ahead of Obama’s international pace,” Bolton said. “While Donald Trump authored ‘The Art of the Deal,’ Kim knows that Pyongyang has outmatched Washington in every negotiation since the Korean War. He may think the challenge is worth the risk.”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I just don’t see President Obama going to Pyongyang or sending someone like John Kerry there as well.  Pardon the pun, but the Kim regime is just too radioactive and has been proven repeatedly that it cannot be trusted that I just don’t see how this helps the legacy of an outgoing Presidency?  Even a future President I think would have a hard time politically justifying taking a trip to North Korea unless something extraordinary was to occur.  I guess we will see what happens.

The rhetoric from Donald Trump to make US allies pay 100% of the costs for stationing US troops in their countries has brought increased attention of how much US allies do pay.  For those that didn’t know Japan pays nearly 3/4 of the costs for the stationing of US troops in their country:

A senior Japanese government official said Friday that Tokyo intends to work harder to convince Trump and his policy advisers to change their stance. “He doesn’t understand that the stationing of troops here is in the interest of the United States,” the official said.

Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry source said, “As [Trump] has been obsessed with placing more of a burden on U.S. allies, he’s unlikely to back down.”  (………..)

According to a report compiled in 2004 by the U.S. Defense Department, Japan’s financial contribution accounted for 74.5 percent of the total, or about 4.4 billion dollars U.S.(about 470 billion yen at a recent exchange rate).  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the South China Sea front where the US is expanding efforts to demonstrate to China the US commitment to freedom of navigation:

Filipino fishermen say they’ve seen more Chinese coast guard ships than usual around the contested Scarborough Shoal, which China effectively took over in 2013 after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels.

Although fishermen have been complaining they’re being driven away by Chinese ships, the Philippine Department of Defense said it could not confirm an increase in Chinese presence at the shoal, 145 miles (230 kilometers) from Luzon island.

Meantime, the U.S. Air Force flew its first mission over the Scarborough area as part of a new Air Contingent force stationed in the Philippines. It involved four A-10C Thunderbolt jets and two Sikorsky HH-60 helicopters.

It looks like the US is getting closer to getting Japan and South Korea to final conclude an intelligence sharing agreement which from a military perspective makes so much sense considering the common threat posed by North Korea:

South Korea, the United States and Japan will look to expand their sharing of military intelligence in response to the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken made the remarks in an interview with South Korean reporters, saying the three countries are boosting security cooperation to protect their citizens from any North Korean provocation.

“Information-sharing among us is one important element of being as safe and secure as possible,” he said. “And we will look for ways to deepen that information sharing as we move forward.”

The prospect of sharing military intelligence with Japan has been a sensitive issue in South Korea where there are still deep-seated reservations about the former colonial ruler. In 2012, the two sides tried to sign a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to share intelligence on North Korea, but the plan was scrapped, as critics accused the government of arranging the deal behind their backs.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

I have always said that Trump’s claims that South Korea is getting a free ride is inaccurate and Ambassador Lippert is calling him out on it as well.  Trump should specify what he thinks South Korea should pay if he wants to criticize like this because South Korea pays a lot more than many other nations getting a free ride off of the US defense umbrella.  With that said Trump probably fully knows that South Korea pays a lot already and is just repeating the claim that resonates with low information voters:

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert on Monday dismissed accusations by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump that South Korea is paying little to keep American troops on its soil.

Without naming Trump, Lippert cited various reasons why the allegations aren’t true, including the fact that South Korea shoulders 55 percent of all non-personnel costs and increases its defense spending by 3 to 5 percent annually.

“We feel very good about the resource sharing that we and the Republic of Korea do together as an alliance,” the ambassador said during a meeting with members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. “It is remarkable.”

Lippert was responding to a request for comments on a “U.S. political candidate’s” contentions that the country receives little from South Korea in exchange for its support.

Trump has made repeated claims that South Korea is getting a free ride on defense, saying recently that the U.S. is “constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games” but being “reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing.” He also told The New York Times he would withdraw American troops from South Korea and Japan unless they boost their financial contributions to the upkeep of the U.S. military presence.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.