North Korea thinks if the US troops go they can march in as Liberators ,LOL
South Korea is a top 5 world economy. They are no longer starving and destitute. If they cannot defend themselves from the starving and destitute North they don’t deserve to be free. They even have well developed indigenous military arms and munitions industry and make their own tanks, ships, and some ordinance.
The US could use those troops on the Southern border.
It’s brilliant that Trump put a US withdraw on the table in these talks.
It’s a BENEFIT to us, forces Japan and So Korea to defend themselves (and they are eminently capable), and gives Norklandia something to crow about. It’s even of benefit to China in their weird calculus.
And he makes it look like we’re giving something up.
If you read the article, there’s a good chance, particularly as NK sees it, that Lucy Van Pelt is the US and Charlie Brown is Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein, or Ukraine. I’d add the Kurds.
Why not? Germany did okay reuniting with East Germany. A strong, united Korea might be the best way to stop Chinese expansion.
Yup, the terms should be ALL American and the troops stay as long as WE need them to. Norkers dictate NOTHING.
Bolton will only accept an agreement with unfettered access and the loading of cargo ships with dismantled parts.
Your .gif is outdated. It only exemplifies clinton, bush and obama.
It’s protection from the war mongering deep state they should be seeking.
The author's suggestion exemplifies the utter stupidity of diplomats and their perfect record of failing to prevent war and conflict. Pulling US forces out of the Korean peninsula simply because a brutal totalitarian regime "agrees" to give up the nuclear weapons it previously agreed to never produce is madness. It would set a humiliating precedent for the developed world and incentivize every tyrannical despot to build their own nuclear program so that it could be later traded away along with any limitation on their plans for future militaristic expansion. Most third graders could formulate better policy than this fatally naive proposal.
Reunification is the best outcome..and the one least in China’s interest.
Anyone who puts any faith at all in anything whatsoever said by North Korean leaders is, quite simply, a fool. End of story.
Utter foolishness. The U.S. troops essentially acting as hostages are the only ultimately keeping N. Korea from again invading the South. With them there, the U.S. must retaliate. With them gone, the North would be in control of Seoul before anybody could do anything.
And a carrier battle group and Oregon...
Little early to be talking demilitarizing the Koreas LOL!
Denuclearizing is a good start.
Stopped reading right there. More libertarian caca.
Thankfully Trump will do what Trump thinks will work best and this author will continue to write articles that very few people read.
That would leave South Korea being invaded by North Korea, China and Russia. It has also been one of the few issues that most united China and Russia in the past.
It might work, though, if South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines have new enough nuclear weapons. [To answer a funny proposition with another one.] Bandow should study some history and get off of the weed.
It would be nice, though, if there were a realistic way to work it out without being pushed to eventually nuking a couple of expansionist nations.
I’d love this just to see the expressions on the faces of the Koreans who say that the US is keeping them from peaceful unification.
“Instead, Kim could demand more from the administration—most likely the end of Washington’s alliance with the South and removal of U.S. troops from the peninsula.”
Trump, don’t be stupid. That has always been the strategic policy goal of North Korean dictators - get the U.S.-South Korean alliance to disband itself. Why? Once that happens, the North will not need any threat of nukes to attack South Korea. The overall program of North Korea remains the same - forced reunification of all Korea under terms suitable to the regime in North Korea retaining control.