Kim — Not Trump — Was Right About Summit Snag, Says State Department

Huffpost ^ | 3/2/19 | Mary Papenfuss

[DoodleDawg]

orth Korea had the more accurate take on what happened at the summit with President Donald Trump before talks failed, according to an official with the U.S. State Department.

The president claimed Thursday that he had walked away from negotiations in Hanoi after Kim Jong Un demanded that all sanctions against the nation be lifted.

“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that,” Trump said. “We had to walk away from that.”

But Pyongyang representatives called a late night news conference later that day to correct Trump’s statements, saying that Kim wanted only economic sanctions imposed since 2016 lifted — and not any concerning weapons. In exchange, Kim offered to shut down the nation’s main nuclear complex — and was prepared to offer in writing a permanent halt to the nation’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, according to his officials.

North Korea’s account of the sanction issue was accurate, a State Department official said Friday in a briefing to the media, The Associated Press reported that Kim had sought the lifting only of United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed since March 2016 — not sanctions going back decades. The concession would have removed sanctions on a range of goods, but not weapons.

[dynoman]

Yeah, why can’t people watch the press conference, it was laid out in surprising detail. This is why everyone should go to primary sources instead of trump hating press like Huffpost.

Trump told a reporter asking a gotya question - “we know about facilities you don’t know about and NK was surprised we knew about” that Trump and Pompeo wanted included. Pompeo commented on it too, he’s with the president;

15:24 in the video;

https://youtu.be/71O8wTsheKc?t=924

[dynoman]

Watch Trump and Pompeo’s answer to the reporter in the video in post 21.

[Pollster1]

Of course the State Department sided with North Korea over our duly-elected President of the United States. Hillary created that department in her own image, and too much of the horse manure is still there.

[AndyTheBear]

Not sure they did call it wrong. The AP and Huffpo seem to have manufactured a contradiction out of an ambigity while obscuring their narative serving assumptions by paraphrasing rather than giving full quotes.

[SkyPilot]

They often go native wherever they are posted

Correct. They Go Native in their assigned country, and combined with the fact that many (if not the great majority of Dept of State employees) harbor anti-American and left-wing ideas to begin with, you have a recipe for disaster.

I worked with the State Dept during my military career on a few occasions. Here are my observations:

1. DOS employees believe they are superior in every way (intellectually, morally, etc.) to every other government agency.

2. State usually brings nothing (logistics, transportation, security) to the table when the stuff hit the fan. When the stuff does hit the fan, they start barking orders to the Defense Dept or other agencies to "do something!", and they treat the DoD as a bunch of "grunts" to be ordered around.

3. Most State Dept employees LOVE to apologize and trash the United States (and the American people) to their host-nation counterparts.

[saywhatagain]

Big victory for Trump in my opinion and perspective.

I believe Trump is only speaking in generalities, no one is going to grasp the details in that moment. The state briefing i read clearly stated that after being rejected for "all" sanctions, they asked only for the economic sanctions as they stated . . . .

Makes sense to give them that, except . . . . . it was rejected simply because to do so (lift those specific sanctions) would be in essence subsidizing their on-going nuclear program . . . . USA came back with how much (specificly) are you willing to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear site. North Korea did not have a sufficient answer. Say Good-bye!

Anyone who has ever negotiated with Koreans, Chinese know that when you walk away and they come back with an offer or even a correction (being nice) they are soooo ready to deal!!!

I believe it is very possible one or more (there are eleven??) of the economic sanctions may be lifted as a big carrot.

[Bigg Red]

This is from “Atlantic”, so how much if it is true?

[Bigg Red]

Derp! “Huffington Post” not “Atlantic”

[BlackAdderess]

Kim was reportedly caught by surprise that we knew that they had not suspended their nuke program already. That indicates to me that they were most likely misrepresenting their true position, or else how would it have come up?

It is not good that the two parties break from an unproductive session with one saying one thing and another saying another. It is a bit of a switch to say that it is the American president who is lying.

[HotHunt]

Is this the State Department that's still loaded with Obama, Clinton and Kerry entrenched liberal bureaucrats or are they on Trump's side?

Unless I misunderstand what this article is saying, it looks to be embarrassing and undermining their employer, President Trump.

Whose side are they on anyway?

[Wuli]

In as much as the State Department says they are essentially agreeing with Kim, it must be asked if Trump had a bad translator working with him, or is State Department staff ill informed on what exactly was said.

Trump needs to straighten this out. It will dog him in 2020.

[Rashputin]

You can bet your bottom dollar that Trump and South Korea talked all of this through before he ever left to go to the meeting. Now South Korea can offer help to the North without the North having alternatives other than the South.

Trump is talking directly with the South without State in the loop so count on them to do any negative sniping they can.

[MarkL]

Yet another confirmation of my long-held belief that one of the worst, most anti-American organizations in the world is the US Department of State.

Mark

[milagro]

A brilliant description of how the media manufactures their FAKE news!

[falcon99]

Ah yes and I’m going to believe this paragon of truth, the Huffington Post, when they quote an anonymous source at the State Dept. Until they put a name to the source, it is fake news. Though as others have said, State is full of anti-Trump, deep staters, and actually America haters.

[Ann Archy]

WTF?? NO ONE would have EVER DARED to do that to Obama or Clinton....INSTANT DEATH!

HOW do we know that the "interpretors" said ALL the right things? I have always been suspicious of them.

[plain talk]

Pompei (who was there) is just clarifying what Trump said. Sometimes Trump doesn’t speak precisely.

[bert]

-——Sometimes Trump doesn’t speak precisely.——

Trump does not split hairs and then split the splits in a lawyerly fashion

The media is splitting split hairs and then trying to make something out of it

The media are collectively american enemies

[ought-six]

Trump can’t unilaterally cancel UN sanctions; only the UN can do that.

[sparklite2]

The State department needs to remember it’s their
job to represent the US to other countries, not to
represent other countries to the US. That’s what
other countries’ foreign ministries are for.