Posted on 08/24/2019 5:15:52 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
July 2018 study https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/north-koreas-power-structure
“Kim Jong-un has been ... pretty straight with me,” says Trump.
“Pretty Straight” does not mean Jong-un is telling the truth.
You nailed it right there.
The Communists have a long history of “Peace Offensives”. Then they will turn on a dime and become hostile again. Trump fell for it hook, line and sinker. Trump’s glowing praise of the little Nork dictator was really stupid then and even looks worse now.
Quite telling that the Norks reversed themselves when the Republicans lost the house. A loss that was largely due to Trump’s jerk personality.
re: ““Old guard” largely executed, or retired, or purged over the last 7 years by Fat Kim. General staff and officers corps now generally solidly loyal and his 100%. He runs the show. Little internal evidence to the contrary”
Then, there are the ‘young bucks’ to contend with; I have not yet met anybody who has zero ‘personal’ ego ...
re: “ A loss that was largely due to Trump’s jerk personality.”
Thanks for the self-reveal on the TDS.
BTW, is was the wishy-washy Repubs w/no spine that jumped ship/”retired” from congress, didja notice that?
Chi coms causing trouble.
KJU does not live in quite the fear his dad did, moving from resting place to resting place and going underground in bunkers for months at a time. I believe it shows he has solid control. Like I said earlier he has put out to pasture or killed most of those he viewed as problematic, including uncle Jang.
Because we want to end the war.
Because you don’t want North Korea only talking to China only, without hearing some other voice. A voice that’s not using North Korea to stir up trouble.
[North Korea only talking to China only]
BTW, that’s from the Department of Redundancy Department.
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
from Godfather part 2.
A discussion here about potential sources for the original quotation.
A more serious question is why did South Korea decide to stop sharing intelligence info with Japan on North Korea?
“He doesn’t want to admit that it failed just before the election. Kim is going to make it increasingly difficult however. Kim is taking his orders from the Chinese.”
THIS. Trump is attempting to push the Chinese on trade. The Chicoms will just jerk Trump around until he’s gone since they don’t have to worry about public opinion polls and deal in long term plans. They will prod their NK pit bull to embarrass Trump as ‘face” is important to them and Trump.
Trump is stuck when it comes to NK as he doesn’t want to admit he was played.
Usually President Trump’s reason for making any given public statement is to provoke the Left.
He makes sure there is something in his statement that the Left will think is wrong or stupid so they won’t be able to resist responding with a contrary position.
Blinded by hatred and contempt for him, they don’t see the trap - they don’t realize that he has baited them into taking unpopular and unrealistic political positions.
Open borders, the green new deal, government subsidizing of student debt, higher taxes, gender silliness, anti law and order, you name it. He has run the same con a hundred times and it still works every time - because they hate him that much.
The funniest part is that this strategy wouldn’t work unless they hated him and thought he was stupid - so rather than leave that up to chance, he MAKES SURE they hate him and think he’s stupid.
That’s right; he does it on purpose. Every time he composes a tweet. Every time he goes in front of a camera.
When he says he likes and respects these dictators, or has a great relationship with them, it’s all done to provoke the Left. The Left then goes on record as saying he should instead be snubbing them, confronting them, etc..
The Democrats used to score political points by sounding more reasonable, more diplomatic, more peace loving, less bellicose than the Republicans - POTUS has them sounding like warmongers.
In this way, President Trump has goaded the Democrats into alienating their base. Americans workers do not want open borders. Women and minorities do not want crime and lawlessness. Nobody wants higher taxes. Nobody wants war. Nobody wants the coercive forbearance of a green new deal. Nobody wants trannies in ladies rooms and girls locker rooms.
These are all wildly unpopular political positions - yet the Democrats are rushing to commit to them like lemmings over a cliff.
That’s our President. :-)
how exactly does it hurt to maintain a dialog given that Trump keeps putting the screws to the Norks with sanctions anyway?
same with China ...
Why doesn’t Trump stop courting Kim Jong-un.
It makes China nervous that Kim may flip and the U.S. may get a spot on NK Is the last thing China wants.
Spooks wink
True. But reality is that he gave up nothing. And got nothing.
Yep. At least Trump didn’t bring him pallets of cash.
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.