Churchill and Roosevelt knew how to keep secrets from public scrutiny until the proper time when dealing with Joseph Stalin to defeat the Nazi military machine. There are just too many egos involved here that want to make public pronouncements before one of the most important meetings so far into this century. NK does not need all this public posturing from Trump and Bolton, in particular. They should not feed into the news industry’s frenzy to be in the know. This should not be grist for the mill before the harvest. Silence is golden here.
This “leader” is erratic, unpredictable, and irrational. And then there’s Kim Jong Un.
1
Oslo...we've got a problem!
NOT my president
Tom Lehrer, where are you now?
A splash of cold water if someone was fool enough to take Kim seriously.
"... the North has reverted to... a playbook that includes sudden shifts in tactics when negotiating with other nations."
Hmmm... who else uses that playbook?
1
Umm yeah who didn’t see this one coming. Except maybe the one who should have.
NK has zero leverage here. Their fall back position is being permanently removed from the planet. They'll take whatever they get and like it. Fatal error was killing killing Otto Warmbeir. Can't very well give him back now can they. dopes.
1
I wonder how Fat Donald is going to spin it when North Korea walks away from the talks, and leaves him at the alter like a jilted bride. As Shakespeare obviously wrote about Trump 400 years ago, "All sound and fury, signifying nothing."
American proposal to north korea. distroy all nuclear facilities in side NK. send all the bombs to US to be destroyed. send your wife and kids to US as hostages guarantee. after that, rollover and die like Gaddafi.
i think kim definitely agrees with such a good deal.
Some recent headlines read "Trump Remembers Promises". So what! I image we are close to the tipping point where much of Trump's hot air goes no where and he is exposed as a mindless fraud. He has thrown the middle east into chaos. Alienated allies in Europe, by passed the nafta deadline, and motivated Asia to negotiate against us. What kind of stradegy is this? His administration is going no where fast. He has over promised and he will under deliver. People said 1 month ago Kim would use this meeting as a PR stunt and that will unfold. I don't understand how anyone was so stupid to vote for this freak show of a human. He's a train wreck. I would imagine if you add his assets vs liabilities the stable genius has a negative net worth. That is why we don't see the tax returns!
Is anyone else laughing? I was. And am.
We have a sales guy/liar for a president, and he says anything he wants and counts on a sucker being born every minute. In the USA it is actually about one new citizen every eight seconds, so about 7 or so per minute. Judging from the American lineage as reflected in the popular vote, call it 45%, Trump has 3 new suckers born every minute. So an endless supply.
The rest of us just watch this display, this bad C- reality show and can't find a way to turn off the TV set. It is so pervasive. Pickup trucks with TRUMP signs drive through your neighborhood. Media blares it out. Sooner or later Trump attacks something that is dear to you (well, in addition to decency).
So North Korea makes our laughing stock look like a laughing stock. 3 suckers are born every minute and that is all it takes with an electoral college...
1
Never had any illusions that “rocket man” was seeking peace and prosperity. He doesn’t deserve it and I would resent it being served up on a platter to him. Why should North Koreans making $1800 per annum be allowed to prosper the same as their kin at $33k?
If you were NK, what would you do?
--The US and SK are continuing their war exercises
--Bolton talks like the fate of NK will be like that of Libya.
No brainer. Give up your nukes, and regime change will follow?!
1
The big game is up. The DPRK is in the driver's seat they've been in since the 1990s when they established the ability to quickly and reliably inflict hundred of thousands of death on South Korea in response to military actions. They are at their final destination, which might be called global strategic nuclear capability (though they very notably arrived at regional nuclear capability --a grave detergent to adversaries --a few years back.) What remains is incentivizing DPRK goals that are not rogue or self-destructive -- like economic development, say becoming a late coming Tiger, the new North Vietnam. Trump would have all overlook that North Korea arrived at their "final destination" on his watch, though his tough act may have helped reinforce that we are still able to play MAD. The only chance Trump had at realizing any DPRK denuclearization worth the name was early in his dawdling administration when the already assured catastrophic costs of denuclearization were confined Asians, an option the very humanistic Steve Bannon declared off the table shortly the window for shut over half a year ago.
"Mr. Bolton has said the precedent for the North Korea negotiations should be Libya, which agreed in 2003 to box up its entire nuclear program and ship it out of the country without conditions."
The author of the report omitted an important part of Libyan history: after that country was de-fanged, the US invaded. The fact that a US journalist could leave out such a relevant detail shows how subservient the corporate-media lap dogs have become.
The joint US-South Korea military exercises (usually conducted in late August - another omission by the US media that I only found out about from the Guardian) along with Bolton's thinly veiled remarks are clearly designed to scuttle any hopes for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
If you're trying to understand developments related to North Korea based on NY Times reports, you'll miss the sad truth: Washington favors war and unrest.
You can't defend an empire through diplomacy, and peace does not enhance the profits of the corporate military sector.
The three top US defense contractors had a combined total revenue in 2001 of $100 billion and employing 400,000 people, which accounted for 1% of the United States' $10 trillion GDP. Given the revolving door between the Pentagon and the military sector, along with that sectors' lobbying might, this is a huge story of malevolent interference in world affairs - ignored by the media lap dogs.
Two clues: Iran, Libya. If the North Vietnamese leadership give up their only negotiating card, they know what awaits them. Would anyone trust a government that reneges international treaties?
Trump violating the agreement we and other nations agreed to will make NK much less willing trust the US. That was a huge mistake; Iran was in compliance so by pulling out of it we violated that agreement. Why on Earth would NK trust our word?
Disarmament in the Libyan way would be something NK would be fools to agree to. Look what happened there. We and the EU helped overthrow their government. Yes, Gaddafi was a brutal tyrant and I can see how the US and Europe felt it was the right thing to do, however why on Earth would Kim want to follow in his footsteps. I wouldn't if I was him.
And going into negotiations insisting upon full disarmament isn't how you do things. You start with small things and work your way up and build trust. Kim meeting Trump at this point will give him everything he wants; to be seen as an equal of the US and being shown to be a full nuclear power at this point. Trump, the great negotiator, is a full going into this, but it's not like we could have expected otherwise.
2
If North Korea submits to Trump's hegemonic demands, it will receive the same miserable fate that visited Libya, among a host of others. There is no gainsaying that the Trump administration cannot be trusted and will likely renege on much of its promises. North Korea, proceed with caution and keep a watchful stance on the US.
1
Kim Jong-un knows he isn't going to suffer the same fate as Muammar Gaffafi and Saddam Hussein because they didn't have China for a neighbor otherwise they would still be in power. As demonstrated by their intervention during the Korean War, the Chinese won't tolerate American troops on their border. It makes more sense for Kim to develop nuclear weapons not as a deterrent against a U.S. attack which definitely will draw China to his side, but as a bargaining chip to get American troops out of the peninsula or to get better economic aid from South Korea. By threatening to call off his meeting with Trump over a joint U.S.-South Korea war games as a breach of good faith, he's following the family's script on gaining the upper hand when dealing with an opponent. With something this important at stake, you'd think the U.S. and South Korea should know better not to give Kim any excuses to claim the higher ground.
"Welcome to the world of negotiating with the obstreperous North Koreans."
I don't think the North Koreans are the ones being "obstreperous" ('unmanageable', 'disorderly', 'undisciplined'). Their sharp reaction to the Trump administration's aggressive behavior is entirely understandable.
On the face of it, the North has shown good faith by friendly participation in the Olympics, seeking talks to end the nearly 70-year war with the South, releasing American-Korean prisoners to the U.S. Secretary of State during a visit, and dismantling its nuclear weapons testing site.
The U.S. (and South Korea) shows its good faith by conducting military exercises aimed at the North and claiming the North's willingness to parley is surrendering to Trump's threats, and by Trump's national security adviser making a not-so-veiled threat that a deal should follow the "Libya model"--which is now, incredibly, being "walked back" by Trump's own administration!
What country wouldn't balk in the face of what is either deliberate bad faith or fatal disorganization and conflicting agendas within the Trump administration?
Indeed, would anyone reading this have any confidence about entering into negotiations with the Trump White House over any serious matter?
It is hard to know whether the present occupant of the Oval Office entirely understands who he has appointed National Security Advisor, but there can be no question that our adversaries have no illusions about John Bolton. Whether he is counting hanging chads in Florida, taking his assignment as U.N. ambassador as a license to destroy our nation's tie to the organization, or implementing a version of the "Arab spring" that elicited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's infamous "We came, we saw, he died." upon watching video tape of Qaddafi being beaten to death on the back of a truck, it is clear he brings to all of his assignments the zeal, cold blood and ecstasy of a medieval fanatic.
1
Just heard on NZ radio news that Trump has threatened North Korean leader with extinction at the fate of his own people, the same as Kaddafi, if Mr Kim doesn't follow through with meeting him.
(I'm of the opinion that he has stopped grovelling to the USA because he's received funds from either Iran or Russia and doesn't need USA money any more) Big mistake in Trump strategy to do what he did and said to Iran before his meeting with Mr Kim. I'm guessing that Iran is financially giving financial support to North Korea, now.
So long as Trump starts off trying to show restraint in swatting the fly buzzing in his face, when it starts going for inside his ear no ones going to blame him one bit.
Why do we have to appear so arrogant and always insist on maintaining upper hand position on everything? That just presents itself as a sign of our true insecurity in ourselves.
Treat the other side as equals and come up with a fair deal. Peace is more important than a broken deal due to always insisting on upper hand.
1
" a splash of cold water ". Sure, like a huuuuuge, rapidly melting glacier.
SAD.
And Trump in bully mode then conflates the Libyan invasion by NATO with the "Libyan model" of denuclearization, saying the Libyan model "decimated" Libya, which is just what North Korea needed to hear at this moment in time.
Tillerson was absolutely right in his assessment of our Dear Leader's capabilities. If anything, he was too moderate.
Some day the US is finally going to realize that the Kim family is not the final arbiter on North Korea's never ending problem with the Korean War, the Armistice Agreement and the west.
The actual leadership is with the KPA, the Korean Peoples Army. The Kim family are only the faces.
Although he feigns indifference,Trump needs and wants the Singapore meeting. His ego craves the worldwide media attention of a great global spectacle over which he presides. His recent domestic popularity bounce is a direct consequence of a public perception that he has increased the likelihood of a peaceful resolution of the Korean nuclear risk. Kim, on the other hand, has already obtained what he wants: an elevation in international status to parity with the US president. Cancelling the Singapore spectacle does not diminish that achievement.
Kim has already granted Trump a nuclear testing halt and only received condescension in return. If he wants to keep the process on track, Trump needs to make amends. But what can he offer that won't tie his hands in Singapore?
Here is an answer: the head of his newly anointed national security advisor, John Bolton de la Mancha, on a platter. Everybody wins. Kim eliminates a reviled player who performed a spoiler role in past negotiations with the Bush regime. Pompeo eliminates a competitor for bureaucratic and policy influence. The American public rids itself of a wild-eyed fanatic. And Trump gets his cherished media moment in the Singapore sun. No downside here, except for Bolton himself.
If we are going to prematurely indulge loose talk about Nobel peace prizes, I'd consider giving one to Kim if he can engineer the jettisoning of Bolton. Seriously. The world would unarguably be a safer place with him out of the political picture.
1
Trump may soon feel the repercussion of wrecking the nuclear deal with Iran. He will have to work even harder to convince Kim Jong-un that the US isn’t seeking a regime under the pretext of a total denuclearisation, accomplished on a quick timeline.
Kim had hinted an incremental approach, and might be seeking “an arms control agreement, not disarmament.” But it will not be acceptable to Trump or even Seoul, according to South Korea’s special national security adviser on Tuesday, after Pyongyang called off high-level talks with the South.
Mutual mistrust is the problem that the US and North Korea need to overcome. This can only be done after years of talks and meetings, conducted by seasoned diplomats.
5
Diplomats like to look at the minutiae of negotiations and worry about who is getting what small concession in return for what. And that's certainly important.
But deals are rarely an accumulation of small victories. Best to step back and look at the big picture. At the Harvard Negotiation Institute they focus on BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). That helps here.
The United States' BATNA looks pretty good. If there is no agreement, we continue with sanctions. We continue to threaten a military response. We continue to strengthen our defenses. Donald Trump's poll numbers may suffer a bit, but he doesn't much care.
North Korea's BATNA does not look good. If there is no agreement, they get to keep their nuclear weapons. What good are they? They are an empty threat, and can never be used.
As Donald Trump says, if they are, North Korea will see "fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen". Kim Jong Un will be a dead man.
That all matters. As the White House says, North Korea asked to meet, not us.
Donald Trump plays a long game. Sure, he likes to stir things up now and then. But as he has said, he wins by plugging away to get what he wants.
That's how he won the presidency. Time and again he survived, and even thrived, on events that would have felled a lesser man.
Donald Trump may not win against North Korea, but when it comes to a contest between the Dotard and Little Rocket Man, my money is on the Dotard. Bigly.
4
"Donald Trump plays a long game"..? You're joking right. He doesn't know what he will say or do tomorrow. He certainly knows nothing of the history of the Korean Peninsula.
You will most definitely lose your bet -- very bigly. Wait and see!
If only it were otherwise,but Kim is right: it is the possession of nukes that is keeping him alive. Bolton and the other chicken hawks steering Trump want nothing more than to see him share the fate of the late Lebanese leader.
4
The current status of the negotiations is this:
Kim, understanding that it was time to let Trump know in no uncertain terms who he was dealing with, has now done so in spades.
Trump. totally lacking confidence in his capacity to deal with him, is currently hiding in the bushes.
Advantage, Mr. Kim.
2
Common sense: North Korea justifiably believes that the US (and many other countries that promote some semblance of decency) would be overjoyed to see Kim out of power and a reunified peninsula. Consequently, his only sure defense are nuclear weapons -- the new "great equalizers." Take away Kim's gun, and he needs Wyatt Earp protecting him. Trump is definitely not Wyatt Earp -- and no country (including China) or international organization would guarantee Kim's eternal claim to power. Consequently, the chances that Kim lays down his weapons are about zero.
4
This whole business continually perplexes me. Meetings. Negotiations. Diplomacy. Does anyone with any experience of N. Korea actually believe Kim will give up his membership in the nuclear club under *any* circumstances? Astonishing.
1
The four countries responsible for the division of the Korean Peninsula and for more than a century of misery and oppresion for the Korean people, Japan, the U.S., Russia, and China, need to meet and commit to a non-intervention treaty.
If the North agrees to denuclearize and to enters into negotiations with the South to end the Korean War, the U.S. would commit to withdrawing its forces from the South at the signing of a peace treaty. The goal should be a peaceful, neutral and largely demilitarized Korean peninsual free from outside interference.
The four major powers, in turn, would commit to substantial non-military aid to rebuild the economy of the North and enourage eventual reunification. We won't find the path to peace in Korea if we don't look for it. Mere denuclearization is not enough. Let there be peace among the Koreans, free from outside interference.
4
From the beginning, this episode in what should have been a major bit of diplomacy at a critical time in world history, has been turned into a Trumpian circus. America has no real diplomacy and no sign of well-thought out policies. Not only has Trump himself sent the wrong messages but his newest group of acolytes have bungled in predictable fashion.
From the beginning it should have been clear that Mr Kim would have to be insane to give up all of his hard-won nuclear weapons. While he may exhibit behaviour patterns not understood by western minds, he is not insane. He wants to be recognized as a nuclear state-just like India and Pakistan- and accrue for DPRK (and himself) all of the status which possession of such materials allows.
While it is difficult to be empathetic with the dictatorial methods of Mr Kim on the domestic front, the behavior of Trump and his acolytes have almost given Mr Kim the high moral ground. Not only that, but Mr Xi in China has been revitalized as an important figure in the whole Korean geopolitical atmosphere.
Given the precondition demands of Bolton and Trump it is difficult to imagine Mr Kim would settle for anything less than full recognition of NK as a nuclear state.
4
Hello? You’re blaming the North Koreans?
The United States and South Korea violated the terms of the Panmunjon Declaration. The peace declaration on April 27th called for the cessation of aggression between the two Koreas.
And what happens? A new set of war drills (Max Thunder) was started on May 14th.
And, to top it off, John Bolton says on April 29th that he thinks the US should do to North Korea what it did to Libya.
For heaven’s sake! Would you negotiate with someone who thinks a desirable outcome for you is to be stabbed in the rectum and torn to pieces in the street by a pack of thugs?
Why should Kim Jong Un want to negotiate with the US when our National Security Advisor sees a “model” in the Libyan disaster that included assassination, the death of tens of thousands of hapless citizens, and the collapse of a country into a lawless, failed state with an endless civil war where refugees are so desperate to leave they risk death by drowning in the ocean?
I’m no fan of Kim Jong Un. I’m horrified that my own country has become delusional. What is printed in this New York Times article does not match reality.
Is the New York Times still a member of the free press or a caged marionette for the Military Industrial Complex?
Come on, reporters, now is the time to find your integrity and courage. Do not become lunatics to appease the insane. Get back to reporting what is actually happening, not the illusions created by political smoke and mirrors.
18
It's more than a "splash of cold water" because North Korea has returned hostages,stopped nuclear testing and is showing us real cooperation in trying to settle this dispute.
In return, the U.S. decides to put on one of our biggest military exercises(War shows) ever and this is close to the N. Korea border. We know they hate this military activity.
What is our real purpose for putting on this war show at this sensitive time?
The U.S, would never allow this sort of foreign military activity
any ware near our borders.
N. Korea decided to take a step back from negotiations because of our unnecessary current "war games"
Reasonable people can understand their disappointment
and sudden change.
However, the war hawks in charge at the white house are convinced "The U.S. is always right.!"
Because of that, the U.S. will always be in some skirmish somewhere around the world---right or wrong.
16
I’m concerned you (and many others) are buying into all of the hype. This is all theater. “Reality TV diplomacy”. NK has been working for decades to have a face-to-face meeting with a US President. It won’t unilaterally withdraw.
NK’s end-game seems to always be additional aide/funds for its starving people and recognition on the world stage to better entrench/secure its totalitarian leaders. True denuclearization was always a fantasy peddled by all sides (NK, SK and the Trump team) to appeal to their respective constituencies.
5
Any clear thinking leader will not be threatened just because a John Bolton type bully is bent on frightening you into making a foolish deal for your country.
I am concerned that you (and others) have not come to understand that plain reality.
Please note that the united states is once again monkeying around in another country that is 6500 miles away from our shores.
a possible Vietnam all over again.
How would you like Korea mixing into our politics here in the u.s.a.
The real concern here is that you and others still feel that your country had the right to mix into the business of other countries.
You have not learned from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Vietnam, Syria.
My concern is that you(and others) are still buying into all of our military hype.
Take a look at the unnecessary deaths we have caused around the world since 1945 the end of WW2.
The two Koreas are trying to settle their problems themselves. They made a good start.
Trump, Bollton,Pompeo, "Island man "(and others) stay out !
Say what you will about Kim Jong-un.
He seems to have Bolton's number.
12
Mr. Cha's description of the North Koreans as "obstreperous" is 100% wrong. They are disciplined, under control, and know exactly what they are doing. Can one say the same about Trump and his crew?
6
It's a cold splash that was needed. Bolton and Pompeo duo have been walking all over Kim as if the game was over and they are the winners. They've been basically saying "we'll completely neuter you on our terms and then throw you an imaginary bone down the road".
If this is a repeat of North Korean tactic, this must be also a repeat of American arrogance.
5
Kim is going to win this bait & switch contest! He's smarter and Trump is a gullible fool!
6
Trump and his team, with their—shoot—ready—aim negotiation skills, are too impatient to negotiate with N. Korea in the rational manner needed. If the US does not involve China at proper levels, this will all be for nothing.
1
Kim Jong Un has more experience and talent governing a nation state than the Trump cabinet and White House staff combined. Mr. Kim rationally and reasonably wants to remain in power.
Giving up nuclear weapons did not end well for Moammar Qaddafi nor Saddam Hussein. While having nuclear weapons has never led to boycotts and isolation of malign International rogues like Israel, India and Pakistan.
There is only one ethnic sectarian historical Korea divided by socioeconomic political educational civil war backed up by big foreign powers. Korea used to be a Japanese colony. China was the victim of Japanese imholocaust holocaust that left 30 million Chinese dead.
Russia has 7500 nuclear weapons followed by the U.S. with 7200. Then in order, France, China, the U.K., Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea with less than 10.
Seems to me that we should be negotiating with the top holders of these weapons first. Get the wrong “leadership” in Russia, the U.S., Israel, Pakistan or India and then just one angry moment like the “Cuban Crisis” and poof!. North Korea with all its rhetoric is not in any position to “start” a nuclear war, and it would be insane for them. Kim Jong-un has them for his own personal defense, no other reason. And he won’t give them up, particularly with the current U.S. Administration.
"The reversal came after months in which Mr. Kim presented himself as a statesman, halting missile tests and freeing imprisoned Americans. Now, the North has reverted to its earlier hard-line stance..."
It's sad how the corporate-media, like well trained lap dogs, parrots Washington's spin on world events.
The US engaged in provocative military exercises - yearly exercises that are usually scheduled for late August - on the eve of historic peace talks. Any nation would react strongly to such a provocation - and certainly, most journalists are aware enough to understand this - but instead, they write what the powerful in Washington want you to hear.
Foreign media take a more realistic view:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/north-korea-military-drills-harm-...
http://www.dw.com/en/us-south-korea-military-drills-an-unnecessary-provo...
11
This meeting will be political theater at its best. No way Kim Jong Un will back out. What then? He has everything to gain and nothing to lose. Three generations of dictatorship have warped his sense of reality but he still has a face to save
This summit was a bad idea to begin with. Way to soon for any US President to meet with such a heinous dictator and confer legitimacy on his regime..
2
I am a Chinese. I can see using Libya as model is a very very bad proposal. We all know what happen to Libya leaders and its people after Qaddafi surrendered his nuke. The simple eradication of a tyrant is not a solution to help all of its people in North Korea because it breaks the state of the whole social and political ecosystem, which makes the issue more complicated and thorny. I can relate to why Kim hesitates because he does not want his country end up like neither Libya nor Iraq.
9
Kim does not care how his country ends up....they have been starving for decades, when not murdered. He only cares how HE ends up.
My god, how did a despot in a dirt-poor country like the DPRK (but armed with limited nuclear weapons) shake down the United States?
It's so obvious where this is going; this isn't about denuclearization, it's about a nuclear treaty in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, perhaps even subsidies for Mr. Kim's nation.
It's mind-numbing to witness a man so ill-prepared for the hard negotiations between unequal countries--the US holds all the cards, but Trump's acting like he needs a "win" at all costs, even at the expense of his country.
Trump is bumbling his way through history, I just hope the next person in office can undo his damage.
9
Mr. Rocket man, give Trump a shiny new gift, kiss his ring and tell him he can build a gaudy hotel and golf course with his name plastered all over it, and he'll be just fine. Oh, one more thing, be sure and compliment him on his hair and the huge crowd at his inauguration.
7
How much of this is really news, as in “newsworthy”? It is “reality tv diplomacy” with extra doses of drama to keep it on the front pages week after week. First, the fanciful talk of “denuclearization”. Then, the release of unjustly held prisoners and discussions of a Presidential Nobel Prize. And now, NK threatening to pull out of the talks and “reversing course” on “denuclearization”.
North Korea will never back out of the talks unilaterally. It has been working for decades to meet one-on-one with a US President. It is difficult to tell who is the most gullible, the Trump team or the media.
Everyone hopes for a positive outcome for the sake of the World, but let’s not be sucked in by the weekly “cliffhangers”.
1
Mr. Kim would not tolerate attempts to “drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment.”
Unless Kim is a suicidal and foolish he will not agree for the unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Mr. Bolton opinion that North Korea should box up its entire nuclear program and ship it out of the country without conditions and expect to receive no benefits, including the lifting of sanctions, until it has done the same, shows the height of arrogance. He seems to expect Russia and China to gather wool in while the neocons dictate irrational demands.
Reminds me of a quote " Empty threats are often worse than saying nothing at all. It's like leading from behind. Eventually, no one thinks you're leading at all. And after a while, no one is even listening."
5
Kim is like a defiant toddler. He's being dragged kicking and screaming to the table by China. He doesn't want to go, he knows he has to, and this is his final act of bravado before the inevitable meeting. China and the US are saying very little about it. They don't have to, They know he's coming. Kim knows it too but he doesn't have to like it.
Un owns Trump. He knows so many ways to manipulate narcism and kleptomania.
1
Uh, his last name is Kim...
Perhaps to the author of this article the latest North Korean threats to cancel the summit are a "Splash of Cold Water", but to someone with common sense that has watched North Korea's actions over the years this is no surprise. This is business as usual for North Korea.
8
Kim was just doing what Trump is a dishonest master of, the bait and switch. I think Trump sucked up Kim’s pablum as fact. Now Trump is miffed. It is better that the facts are on the table.
7
In view of US position, probability of
successful summit on June 12 is 20%.
If US insists on N Korea dismantle its nuclear
arsenal before it responds with promised aid,
lack of president Trump's credibility will
make it difficult for Kim Jong-Un to accept
the deal. If president Trump is serious he
will have to make good offer upfront to
incentivize N Korea to consider
denuclearization.
Trump has a huge advantage over previous US Presidents when it comes to negotiating with the DPRK. Trump cares not one whit for the human rights of the people in the DPRK so that is removed as a stumbling block on the path to an agreement. He only cares about his image so he and Kim may find a way to make themselves both look good while subverting one-time US held principles, like democracy and rule-of-law, for which Trump has no more respect than Kim.
20
Let's not forget that not only has Trump proved that he cannot be trusted as an ally; he also has needed President Xi to get Kim to the table; he has business interests in Indonesia that he is favoring via loans from Chinese state agencies; he is showing weakness in trade regulation over ZTE; he has acted impatiently, disdainfully and provocatively toward the almost powerless Palestinians in regard to his country's embassy to Israel; and he has ignored the sensible option of postponing military drills with South Korea at a time when Kim has offered to dismantle North Korea's nuclear test site. Would you do serious business with a money-obsessed narcissist like Trump?
A reply to the DRNK Foreign Office statement by an assistant to a cabinet colleague senior to Bolton, i.e. an assistant to Pompeo, would be a way of saving Trump's excessively lauded political bacon in this situation. It might, for example, advise that a reduction is contemplated in the current schedule of military drill with South Korea by Mr. Trump's cabinet and also express interest in learning more about the DRNK's vision for denuclearizing the Korean peninsular. If so, then the White House would be taking a turn toward problem-solving and away from indulgence in Boltonian intransigence. It would be regaining a little, but not too much, control over the public narrative -- a competition in which the DRNK is obviously interesed, and it would not be giving up anything in Trump's control.
1
Why even bother when both principals are known to violate and abrogate every agreement they have ever made?
They are both unrepentant compulsive liars.
The difference is that Kim Jung-un really is a billionaire.
7
If you were North Korea and the two countries you were supposedly starting to peace with staged massive military exercises right before meeting were to take place, wouldn't you have second thoughts about it?
Besides, Kim has parity now and just wanted to have the world and especially the US to recognize his regime. Why would he give up his nukes when, ultimately, they are the only thing preventing a maniac like Trump from attacking them?
13
Robert, If you keep making rational, well-informed arguments such as that, you'll never get to be a corporate-media journalist.
3
Invoking the "model" of Libya, where Qadafi was overthrown and killed after bargaining away his nukes, does not seem a very smart move, even for someone acting as the "bad cop." Surely that image got Kim's attention.
23
I wonder what is the point of the whole exercise? Why were the South Koreans engaging in military exercises a few weeks before talks?
Something is really odd here. Your long term enemy offers talks and you immediately engage in military exercises with your allies? Why would you do that? Any straight thinking country would have put the exercises on hold until the talks were over. It's almost as if the South is not interested.
7
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are in serious trouble. There are two crazy, pathological liars, who are going to decide the fate of the world.
2
The president who brags that he always hires the best people has Blow-It-Up Bolton discussing how he would humiliate North Korea publicly.
Brilliant.
21
Bolton, not surprisingly, made a huge mistake. Negotiation 101 Failure.
And although it shouldn't be Trump, we should of course be sitting down for face-to-face talks with North Korea, but we should also expect that it's going to take a series of steps to make progress; how could we possibly expect that we'll just get everything we want on the first shot, after all these years, and given how far apart we've been!
Begin to develop the relationship!
10
For North Korea, the equation is "Kim Regime=Nuclear weapon". One can not exist without other. Trump knows it, and should insist CVID to the end. Trump is in a position to make Kim sign the paper on June 12th as long as US stands firm about the denuclearization because not signing means certain death for Kim, and no one will miss him except pro NK South Korean government. I did not vote for Trump but if CVID is succesfully done-whether by default or force, Trump will be my hero because having CVID on NK means the end of the tyrannical NK regime and freedom for 20 million NK people.
1
Maybe Trump has some grand plan that he's not telling the rest of us, but it's very hard for me to imagine that Kim will ever agree to meaningful restrictions on his nukes. In the end, he'll look back at Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi, and say:
"I've got nukes and have been getting all sorts of attention from all over the world, even though I run a small, poor country. Those two guys, who ran other small, poor countries, had nukes and promised to give them up. Once the US verified to its own satisfaction that they'd carried out their promise, the US either murdered them or allowed others to murder them. In short, give up your nukes and you'll end up dead; keep your nukes and you'll stay alive and get lots of attention. Hmmm, I wonder whether I should give up my nukes?"
40
Don't forget the Ukraine. They gave up their atomic weapons for a promise of protection. Now they have no nuclear weapons and no Crimea.
6
You lost me at "Maybe Trump has some grand plan..."
1
As soon as it started to look like he might make progress on the NK situation, the entire pro-Trump machine reoriented around this being his crowning achievement that made it all worth it. He deserves a Nobel Prize for it!
This gives NK immense leverage over Trump. He needs a win here, worse than he ever has before. He'd probably give them Alaska for a positive headline.
Kim Jong Un's not stupid, I'm sure he reads American papers. Xi may have brought NK to heel, but he won't stop Jong Un from bending Trump over a barrel.
32
Saddam Hussein did NOT have nukes. Not even close.
I've always wondered why the Korean peninsula was divided in the
first place. The fact that it was, though, has provided a 70-plus
year comparison, intended or not, of western and eastern
approaches to governance.
2
Western and eastern ???? Is tyranny an eastern phenomenon only? Does democracy flourish everywhere in the west?
5
Hiring Bolton as supposed secretary of state may be one of the worst decisions The Con Don has made. The young leader, and other smart leaders, are right not to trust them. They are lying thieves with no Social Conscience - just big mouths.
Someone please convince them this is not a fox so-called news "alternate fact" television program. This is OUR lives and those of hundreds of millions around the globe.
Those with the power must stop the Robber Barons right now.
North Korea's main nuclear missile site imploded. They can't afford to keep this up.
Once we hire/elect Socially Conscious adults to manage OUR United States of America they can use diplomacy, and the promise of a better life, to stop the warfare between North and South Korea. That will be a time to really celebrate.
22
It not clear what it means when you say that "North Korea views disarmament very differently than the United States does." Is the U.S. position that North Korea will have to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons and missiles before any substantive action by the U.S. as stated by National Security Adviser John Bolton? Or, is there a willingness to follow the North's position, supported by China, of a "gradual" process with reciprocal actions by both sides? If he answer to the first question is "Yes," then it appears that the summit will be canceled or end in failure. Mr. Trump has yet to tweet any clarification whether "the demand that the North surrender its entire nuclear program" is a precondition.
11