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)
;-) boy are you ever in for one surprise on this one.
There have been few concessions from the North Side. This should come as no surprise.
What would be counter arguments to his points?
Well I hope you are right and he ends the charade and returns to the Version 1.0 that was working before traitor/quisling/commie Moon Jae In kicked off the Season Of Appeasement at The Winter Olympics last year and then everything went south from there.
This is SPOT ON!! Wow. WULI. You get it! And more and more are getting it too, and waking up to DPRK’s crap and lies and insincerity and that this is going really nowhere—that they are nuking up if anything through fissile materials and have only just suspended the bold provocations for a season to get what they want. They’ve done that under Clinton, Bush and Obama before as a tactic only—then returned to their misbehavior. They’ll do it again under Trump. And I should add here THANK GOD for BOLTON and POMPEO who reigned in some silliness from the President and the two are are now roundly hated by Pyongyang so you gotta know they did something right. They’ve done a great service to the country IMHO
But on FR there were some real surreal days around here when KJU was almost a Protected Class Minority here, you would incredulously think. Still a little bit of it but folks I believe have taken the blinders by now.
Sure, Kim wants flour, rice, oil, corn tortillas and egg in his beer, but does he want peace..?? Probably not..
We are dealing with COMMUNISTS here. They can rarely be believed.
However they DO want Peace.
But it depends on the Communist definition of “Peace”:
Kim is just playing the same extortion game as his father. Carter and Albright fell for it. Trump isn’t. The sanctions remain.
Klingner says (and I tend to agree): POTUS said before summit “ I can’t really put on new sanctions when I’m meeting with [Kim]; I thought it would be disrespectful.” In addition, the Treasury Department deferred implementing sanctions against three dozen Russian and Chinese entities providing prohibited support to North Korea. Nor has the White House taken action against a dozen Chinese banks that Congress recommended be sanctioned for their dealings with North Korea. After Singapore, the administration sanctioned a few tranches of a small number of North Korean or related entities. U.S. officials indicated they were meant as a signal of larger actions that could be taken in the future to pressure Pyongyang. But in the six-month run-up to the Hanoi summit, no significant action was taken.” (End quote)
That is the nature of sanctions. The Chinese and the Russians are violating the sanctions. Still, the sanctions do have a negative impact on NK. They want relief. We should not give it to them until they show good faith in the negotiations. This is the time for resolve and not capitulation. Now they want Pompeo removed from the negotiating team.
If we return to the status quo ante, so be it. Time is on our side.
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Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
See, it takes longer to put together a counter argument than it takes a TDS-suffering leftist to come up with additional disingenuous arguments.
Therefore, attempting to address the deranged fantasies of yet another of the seemingly endless supply of these morons is a losing game than only losers would play.
Through consistent bad faith they have lost entirely even the privilege to have their ideas considered.
I'm past skeptical to cynical.
I think the sanctions, that is the defacto application of them, have also been loosened under Trump, just as they have been under every president before him, Democrat (light water reactors) and GOP (Banco Delta Asia unfreezing of Office 39 assets), during a season when they thought they could get something from the DPRK. It’s really no difficult and sometimes difficult to accept that we are in the same hopeless, if not foolish, cycle of naive trust of the Kim Regime. Now, you will see, a significant undercutting of those very sanctions during the visit of Fat Boy to Vladivostok to see Putin, as I speak. This has a pattern and it repeats over and over and over and over, that is all I am saying. Watched it too long and intensely over 30 years to not see it otherwise.
Next.
I don’t know about the “de facto” relaxation of the sanctions by the Trump administration. They certainly don’t compare to what was done under Clinton.
Despite all the posturing and threats by the US prior to Trump, NK was able to obtain a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it. We are now faced with the decision to contain it or eliminate it.
The danger is that NK will sell the weapons and technology to other states like Iran or non-state actors. China has been using NK as a weapon against us and others in the region. So far they have suffered no real consequences for their support of NK.
We can put more pressure on China using trade or work with Japan on developing its own nuclear capability. It would set off a firestorm, but it would certainly get China’s attention. I realize that Japanese domestic politics may veto the acquisition of nuclear weapons not to mention Article 9 of the Constitution, but if NK starts firing missiles over Japan again, there may be a popular call for a nuclear arsenal controlled by Japan.
Trump has inherited an intractable problem. NK already achieved its nuclear objective. Now like the dog who caught the car, what are they going to with it? They are certainly not going to use it, which would mean national suicide. They can only sell it or use it to extract aid from the rest of the world.
I see no need for a counter argument against an arguer who I have every reason to believe is acting in bad faith.
That’s why the bad faith being generated is so poisonous. It now no longer makes any sense to even consider their arguments except as a window into the mind of an enemy. Whatever their intent is, it is extremely unlikely to accord with my own.
Bring us something from someone who isn’t in acting in bad faith and it will be better received.
Well you make a lot of sense there kabar
How about you suggest a writer or a news source that you DO respect on North Korea and I will try to provide material from them and critique it. Surely there must be someone you respect.
How about finding me one? Someone where I look up their name and don’t find a Twitter feed full of TDS babble that immediately makes me question their intent and judgment.
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