North Korea rejects South Korean media proposed to witness dismantling nuclear test site

The Hill ^ | 05/18/18 | JOHN BOWDEN

[TigerLikesRooster]

North Korea rejects South Korean media proposed to witness dismantling nuclear test site

BY JOHN BOWDEN - 05/18/18 07:31 AM EDT

North Korea's government has rejected a list of South Korean journalists invited to attend the planned dismantlement of a nuclear test site, according to South Korean officials.

Reuters reports that South Korea's Unification Ministry announced Friday that North Korean officials "declined to accept" a list of the country's reporters slated to attend the event, which will take place next month.

The decision is likely to raise doubts in South Korea about whether the North is serious about easing tensions with its neighbor even after the two nations agreed last month to work toward peace and an end to the Korean War.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Whatever N. Korea wants to do to U.S., it does to S. Korea first. Lately, that has become a pattern. S. Korea is N. Korea's favorite punching back for sending a message to U.S.. This is also a typical way of N. Korea "bullying" S. Korea.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[UCANSEE2]

If the ‘media’ were to find out that KIM didn’t have working nukes, he would lose his bargaining chip.

[nikos1121]

We are still at war with SK. If they start shooting off missiles again, I don’t see how we’d be out of line to drop a bunker buster bomb into his mountain...

[DownInFlames]

No verification, no trust.

[originalbuckeye]

Ah....so little rocket man is all bluster! He probably does have some kind of nuke, but he has no bargaining power if the West realizes it is mostly smoke and mirrors. Either he allows an inspection and a dismantling, or his country continues to live in the dark ages. TRUST, BUT VERIFY.

[Bernard Marx]

The decision is likely to raise doubts in South Korea about whether the North is serious about easing tensions with its neighbor

No Shiite Sherlock! I remember Aesop's tale of the scorpion and frog crossing the river. It's NK's "nature" to consistently lie.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Driving wedges.
This one between Seoul and Washington.
They are damn good at it.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Trust NOTHING

Verify EVERYTHING

[AdmSmith]

According to Noon in Korea:
Check out this delegation from NK touring China to learn about economic development. They just met with Xi and then visited Xi’s hometown, Xi’an. Here are 90-degree bows offered by delegation members to Emperor Xi. NK seems to be back in China’s orbit
https://twitter.com/NoonInKorea/status/998080710480154625

[TigerLikesRooster]

No surprise here. Furthermore, contrary to some of other remarks at the link, N. Korea is not in the driver's seat playing U.S. against China. To do that, NK first has to position itself away from China and closer to U.S.. That is where the middle ground is. But Xi yanked NK back to its fold, leaving Kim little breathing space. Xi is not being played by Kim. Xi has Kim by the balls.

N. Korea's nuke and ICBM are supposed to completely free N. Korea from China, actually from everybody. However, it resulted in the opposite. N. Korea has now become a vassal fully owned by China.

[AdmSmith]

N. Korea has now become a vassal fully owned by China.

Yes, that is why NK actually needs Washington:

Sooner or later it will be big changes in NK, and then the money and trade flows will be in charge, not the Juche priests. This https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_model_of_trade will be a big factor.

A rough calculation: To increase the standard of NK to a suitable level about $100 000 is needed per capita for the next decade = about 25 M x $100k = $2,500 billion. With > 15 % profit margin that is more than $250 bn in profit. This is a conservative figure.

If I were to give advice to the Norks I would say; “Make sure that you have good relations with Tokyo and Washington otherwise you will be swallowed by Seoul and Beijing. Perhaps you as well need US forces and bases for protection, ask Vietnam”

[TigerLikesRooster]

That can happen only when China loosens its grip on N. Korea. To make it happen, U.S. has to put more pressure on China. For example, U.S. needs to have another big Chinese IT corporation such as Huawei in the cross hairs, in addition to ZTE.

In extremely unlikely case, Kim could do a really crazy maneuver like agreeing to have U.S. troops stationed in NK. But before that happens, PLA will invade NK and wipe out NK regime.

[AmericanInTokyo]

May be one reason why Kim had his uncle killed (though that murder cannot be justified).