Posted on 04/22/2019 1:33:00 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
Weeks after the collapse of the summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, the North Korean leader finally broke his silence.
In a speech heavily focused on foreign affairs delivered to the Supreme People’s Assembly – North Korea’s pro forma parliament – Kim made clear his position.
He said that a third summit with Trump wasn’t off the table just yet, but getting there would require evidence that the U.S. position on sanctions relief more seriously.
To this end, Kim also echoed a message he had originally delivered during his New Year’s Day address: that his patience is not infinite. He put in place a deadline for Trump. The United States would have to come around by the end of 2019.
While these were the headlines that came out of Kim’s speech, there were more ominous signs that North Korea may lessen its deference to Washington and resume provocative acts.
On Thursday, Kim oversaw the testing of a new tactical guided weapon, North Korea’s first public weapons test since the second summit with Trump in February ended without agreement.
What is more important than a suggestion that a third U.S.-North Korea summit is still possible is Kim’s resumption of a discussion of the United States’ so-called hostile policy.
For decades, North Korea has used the phrase to describe a large basket of behaviours and capabilities it sees as threatening its existence and security.
In the latest speech, Kim pointed at the resumption of US-South Korea exercises under the new “Dong Maeng” moniker, a Korean term which means “alliance” in English.
While the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises that North Korea spent years fiercely protesting are no more, Kim is not convinced that Washington is behaving in the way that would see through the implementation of the June 12 declaration that Kim and Trump agreed to in Singapore.
And so, Kim suggested that there would be tit for tat.
“As wind is bound to bring waves, the U.S. open hostile policy toward the DPRK will naturally bring our corresponding acts,” he said.
Such a statement has multiple objectives. It will reassure hardliners within the regime who oppose talks with the U.S. and favour a self-reliant posture emphasising a strong national defence. Kim spoke directly to this constituency by emphasising the need for the expansion of military capabilities.
Another objective will be to communicate to Washington that without a change in course, Trump will lose the one thing he cherishes most about the ongoing detente with Pyongyang: the lack of any serious provocations such as nuclear or intercontinental-range ballistic missile tests....(Excerpt)
Nothing a few hotly worded love letters can’t smooth over.
Trump will keep sanctions on as long as it takes. If Kim starts testing ballistic missiles again, the US Fleet will enter the region again. It will alert China, and here we go again, but this time Japan and the other countries will be with the US.
You know how to end this thing? Get the women involved. Open up the borders of both countries, and let the people meet, like they did in Germany.
Same in Venezuela, and the rest. Let the women handle it.
One of the most powerful women in North Korea right now is none other than Kim Jong Un’s younger sister.
In fact, some would go so far as to say she is perhaps the most powerful person in North Korea, right now. She calls the shots. She’s the only person who can talk back to him.
And she is. Bad. News.
The problem with this article is it appears to put NK on an equal footing with the USA.
Nonsense and yet more posturing on behalf of the failed regime.
I think Trump has the right approach.
I understand you feel differently.
(One) of us, is wrong.
Maybe.
:)
I'd think the best move is to drop the most dangerous thing we can find on North Korea.
Even if it involves loading the democrats in congress on an airplane and pushing them out the door over Pyongyang.
I think Trump HAD the right approach.
The North Koreans are bolstered by China and Putin and will not budge on their nukes.
Time to end the charade.
Watch the China negotiations. NK will become more aggressive as Trump pushes China.
If NK gets to aggressive Trump will punish China.
Actually you are 1/2 correct.
I firmly believe the President had an EXCELLENT—and it was working—North Korea approach on this for all of his first year in office and up until late spring last year. I call them as I see them. I was not too kind on GWB in the final two years of his second term on North Korea with Condi and Ambassador Chris Hill. Man that was a disaster. People will get pissed but I must remain consistent.
Works for me.
So, kim has reverted to his mean.
The negotiations are over.
Thanks for the advice Mister back bencher but I’ll stick with Mister Trump on negotiating with anybody. Now please go away.
The author uses lots of loaded language in support of Kim. He misses the point that Trump refuses to play the extortion game that NK has used so successfully in the past. What concessions has Kim made? It is Kim who is negotiating in bad faith.
You have a distorted version of what happened in Germany and the fall of the Wall.
No, buttface. You can’t have any bombs.
Two things:
1) I don’t think anyone without top secret clearance has enough info to really evaluate the situation.
2) I would not take advice on NK or any issue from a TDS sufferer like the author.
Trump no longer rewards bad behavior. Kim will find Trump less accommodating and more demanding as Mils options dwindle to COMPLIANCE.
It was bound to happen.
Two immovable objects can quit working to try to move each other, but sooner or later one will again try to move the other.
No entreaties from U.S. leaders are going to change the internally directed course of the dictators in North Korea.
Kim bought some new negotiations with the U.S. with his past provocations and belligerence; he got face-to-face with a U.S. President which none of his predecessors had ever achieved.
The U.S. acted, and still acts, as if they gave Kim nothing, which is a misunderstanding of North Korea internally, and just how important to the regime is it’s own people’s perception of its leader on the world stage. That is not just powerful among the populace, but in keeping control of the levers of government among the elite.
It is right and good that Bolton is helping Trump to not give away anything that the U.S. considers important, regardless of the matter that to Kim he already, at least for a time, got something powerfully important to him.
But the author is essentially right. Whereas Kim thought his provocations had brought Trump to meet with him to make some concessions, none have been made. And whereas Trump thought that Kim was finally a leader willing to make compromises for peace, he wasn’t, and he won’t.
An elephant in the room is sitting in plain site, never admitted, never discussed, never questioned in spite of how it colors all that North Korea does.
Not just the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK - North Korea), but that of the Republic of Korea (ROK - South Korea) as well, define their territorial writ as the entire Korean peninsula.
In the ROK Constitution:
Article 3
The territory of the Republic of Korea shall consist of the Korean peninsula and its adjacent
islands. (found at: http://www.moleg.go.kr/english/korLawEng?pstSeq=54794)
In the DPRK Constitution:
Article 1
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is an independent socialist state representing the interests of all the Korean people.” (as found at: https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peoples_Republic_of_Korea_1998.pdf)
As far as the dictators of North Korea are concerned, the U.S. has been at war with KOREA (all of it) and the leaders of North Korea are the leaders of all Korea. For that reason it is only the U.S. that matters in negotiations with North Korea, as far as the state and status of military and security affairs. The rest is an internal affair and not central to the North Korea-U.S. relationship, as far as North Korea is concerned. Politically, as far as North Korea is concerned the governments of South Korea, all of them, have been and remain puppets of the U.S., and will be washed away once North Korea and the U.S. can make peace.
The North Korean position, as demanded by its perception of its own legitimacy, as enshrined in its constitution, can never be reconciled to the compromises that would be necessarily demanded by the U.S., and any such comprises made by the U.S. (in error in my view) would consequently compromise its commitments to South Korea.
Unless some great internal compromise occurs within the power elite of North Korea, or that elite implodes and creates a power vacuum in North Korea, the U.S. and North Korea will remain unmovable objects that cannot, by the demands of their respective interests, give each other what they want.
Kim has just one thing on his mind - staying on top.
I wonder just long it will be before the starving troops turn on their masters...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.