Just two days after North Korea resumed its “dotard” insults at President Trump, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday morning that further denuclearization talks are no longer needed with the Trump administration as it appears negotiations have stalled, reported Reuters.
In a statement to Reuters, NoKo ambassador, Kim Song, said: “We do not need to have lengthy talks with the US now and denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiating table.”
He added that “sustained and substantial dialogue” sought by the Trump administration was a “time-saving trick” to accommodate its domestic political agenda, likely referring to the upcoming election year where President Trump is trying to get as many wins as possible to fulfill talking points of first-term success.
We noted on Friday that there was less than a month to go before North Korea’s self-imposed end of year deadline to cut off nuclear negotiations with Washington if no new concessions were given in the path towards denuclearization.
President Trump has told reporters he has a “good relationship” with Kim Jong Un, though he has said the US reserved the right to use military force against Pyongyang.
With talks stalled and denuclearization off the table, it appears that the US and North Korea have wasted several years in discussions and have accomplished absolutely nothing.
As Kim and President Trump are back at flinging insults at one another amid a breakdown in talks, North Korea said it’s preparing a “Christmas gift” for the US, likely in the form of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch.
Stay tuned as geopolitical uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula could erupt into the new year with a 20 megaton bang.
Psy-Op of the Day: North Korea and Bitcoin
Guest Post by Tom Luongo
So the latest threat to global security we’re supposed to believe is cybercrime from North Korea involving Bitcoin.
There is a new report from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) called Closing the Crypto Gap: Guidance for Countering North Korean Cryptocurrency Activity in Southeast Asia.
It’s important stuff apparently. Because it’s all over the news feeds. All the major MSM outlets are covering this story by doing what they always do, quote the executive summary and dress it up as journalism.
Continue reading “Psy-Op of the Day: North Korea and Bitcoin”
Reuters Confirms That Bolton Torpedoed The Hanoi Summit
Authored by Mike Whitney via The Unz Review,
An explosive report by Reuters confirms that John Bolton sabotaged the denuclearization talks between Kim Jong un and Donald Trump in Hanoi in February. According to a March 29 exclusive by journalists Lesley Wroughton and David Brunnstrom:
“Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper” demanding that Kim surrender all of his “nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States.”
Trump also added a number of unrelated demands including “fully dismantling” all “chemical and biological warfare program(s)…. and ballistic missiles, launchers, and associated facilities.”
Trump surprised Kim by demanding complete, unilateral disarmament in exchange for a flimsy promise to lift economic sanctions sometime in the future. Naturally, Kim rejected the offer.
Did Bolton Blow North Korea?
Guest Post by Ron Paul
President Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un last week was criticized by both parties in Washington long before Air Force One even touched down in Hanoi. Washington’s political class seemed terrified that the nearly 70 year state of “war” with North Korea might actually end. In the end the only positive thing they could say about the meeting was that Trump apparently walked away with nothing to show for it.
The location of the meeting – Hanoi, Vietnam – serves as a great example of what can be won in peace versus what is lost in war. After losing nearly 60,000 US service members in an unnecessary war that took a million Vietnamese lives, the US loss of the Vietnam war resulted not in a communist takeover of southeast Asia but something very different: the domino theory failed because communism was destined to fail. Now we are close trading partners with an increasingly pro-market Vietnam. The result of trade and exchange versus war is a better life for all.
Marching to Gilead
Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
I suppose Mr. Trump dangled visions of North Korea’s future as a Buick showroom and the mysterious Kim Jong Un detected some kind of trap there. A correspondent with military intel credentials writes: “[Eric] Hoffer’s observation that people only revolt when things are getting better seems applicable to DPRK. I can only assume that Kim and his cabal in NK know this or somehow instinctively understand it. In short, as I see it, he can’t afford to let things get really better for North Korean people. So, I believe Trump’s carrot of great economic success for DPRK’s people probably scares Kim badly.”
Inside Nikki Haley’s Shocking Speech to Secretive Far-Right Group
“Just days before she resigned as UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley delivered a private speech to the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of influential right-wing figures. Journalist Max Blumenthal obtained exclusive access and reveals shocking details — including Haley’s admission that she threatened the Chinese ambassador with a US invasion of North Korea.”
You may see the original article at The Real News Network.
North Korea Thinks Pompeo Has Reneged On The Deal
Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
Pyongyang has voiced its regret over America’s attitude during high-level talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and accused Washington of seeking unilateral and forced denuclearization from North Korea.
“We were expecting the US… to come up with constructive measures to help build confidence in the spirit of reunion and talks. However, the attitude of the US was indeed regrettable,” said a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency.”
Continue reading “North Korea Thinks Pompeo Has Reneged On The Deal”
Satellite images show North Korea upgrading nuclear research facility: report
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Satellite images from last week show that North Korea is making numerous improvements to the infrastructure at a nuclear research facility, according to a new study.
The images, obtained by North Korea analysis outlet 38 North, come just weeks after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that called for a denuclearized Korean peninsula.
The satellite photos indicate that North Korea is quickly progressing on several adjustments to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.
The improvements include a new cooling water pump house, multiple new buildings, completed construction on a cooling water reservoir and an apparently active Radiochemical Laboratory. It is unclear whether the reactor is still in operation, the report said.
Continue reading “Satellite images show North Korea upgrading nuclear research facility: report”
Trump to Europoodles: “Roll Over. Bark. Beg…Crawl.: With a Korean Preface
Guest Post by Fred Reed
I don’t get it. I know, I know, I’m just some mutt in Mexico with a computer, and easily puzzled. But…huh? Trump, we are told, pulled off a master stroke in Singapore. All the world reels at this astonishment. We see Talleyrand and Metternich rolled into one gorgeous taco. But…but….
Who did the doing, and who got done?
What really happened, as best I can tell: For years America’s relation with North Korea was its usual one of military intimidation: Submit, or we will forever keep you in poverty if we don’t actually bomb you into rubble, a point kept in North Korean consciousness by annual military exercises aimed at Pyongyang. OK. Business as usual. The Empire barks.
Then this kid Kim decides to build his own deliverable nukes, tell Washington to bugger off, and starts launches. Worse, or better depending on your viewpoint, he rants about turning the US into lava. Washington suddenly pays attention to the North as it never had before.
Cute, huh?
Continue reading “Trump to Europoodles: “Roll Over. Bark. Beg…Crawl.: With a Korean Preface”
Kim Jong Un Offers to Host Peace Talks Between United States and Canada
Guest Post by Andy Borowitz
SINGAPORE (The Borowitz Report)—One day before his summit with Donald J. Trump, the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, has offered to host peace talks between the United States and Canada.
Speaking to reporters at his hotel in Singapore, Kim said that the rising tensions between the North American neighbors were posing an “intolerable threat to world peace.”
In addition to offering to host U.S.-Canada talks in Pyongyang, Kim urged the immediate creation of a demilitarized zone along the border separating the two hostile nations.
“In exchange for Canadian Mounties agreeing to stand down on their side of the border, the United States, in turn, would dismantle its nuclear weapons,” Kim said.
Although stating that “North Korea stands ready and willing to be an honest broker” in peace talks between the two countries, he urged Trump to dial back the “inflammatory rhetoric” that he aimed at Canadians over the weekend.
“Violent language and threats have no place in international diplomacy,” Kim said.
Continue reading “Kim Jong Un Offers to Host Peace Talks Between United States and Canada”
Is US Bellicosity Backfiring?
Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
U.S. threats to crush Iran and North Korea may yet work, but as of now neither Tehran nor Pyongyang appears to be intimidated.
Repeated references by NSC adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence to the “Libya model” for denuclearization of North Korea just helped sink the Singapore summit of President Trump and Kim Jong Un. To North Korea, the Libya model means the overthrow and murder of Libya strongman Col. Gadhafi, after he surrendered his WMD.
Wednesday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui exploded at Pence’s invocation of Libya: “Vice-President Pence has made unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya … I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks.
A Trump Doctrine for Singapore and Beyond
Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
After Pyongyang railed this week that the U.S.-South Korean Max Thunder military drills were a rehearsal for an invasion of the North, and imperiled the Singapore summit, the Pentagon dialed them back.
The B-52 exercises alongside F-22 stealth fighters were canceled.
But Pyongyang had other objections.
Sunday, NSC adviser John Bolton spoke of a “Libyan model” for the North’s disarmament, referring to Moammar Gadhafi’s surrender of all his weapons of mass destruction in 2004. The U.S. was invited into Libya to pick them up and cart them off, whereupon sanctions were lifted.
As Libya was subsequently attacked by NATO and Gadhafi lynched, North Korea denounced Bolton and all this talk of the “Libyan model” of unilateral disarmament.
North Korea wants a step-by-step approach, each concession by Pyongyang to be met by a U.S. concession. And Bolton sitting beside Trump, and across the table from Kim Jong Un in Singapore, may be inhibiting.
What was predictable and predicted has come to pass.
Continue reading “A Trump Doctrine for Singapore and Beyond”
North Korea Threatens To Abandon Trump Summit, Furious Over Bolton Comments
I thought this was a done deal. Q and the Trumpeteers told me so. Did Trump get played?
Update: The White House says it’s hopeful that its planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will move forward, though it’s prepared for tough negotiations, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News.
“He’ll be there, and he’ll be ready” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Trump in a Fox News interview Wednesday, adding that North Korea’s threat to back out of a denuclearization summit isn’t out of the ordinary.
“We’re ready to meet, and if it happens that’s great, but if doesn’t well see what happens,” she said. “If it doesn’t we’ll continue the maximum pressure campaign that has been ongoing”
The summit is set to take place June 12 in Singapore.
Continue reading “North Korea Threatens To Abandon Trump Summit, Furious Over Bolton Comments”
SABOTEURS
America’s Unsustainable Empire
Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
Before President Trump trashes the Iran nuclear deal, he might consider: If he could negotiate an identical deal with Kim Jong Un, it would astonish the world and win him the Nobel Peace Prize.
For Iran has no nuclear bomb or ICBM and has never tested either. It has never enriched uranium to bomb grade. It has shipped 98 percent of its uranium out of the country. It has cameras inside and inspectors crawling all over its nuclear facilities.
And North Korea? It has atom bombs and has tested an H-bomb. It has intermediate-range ballistic missiles that can hit Guam and an ICBM that, fully operational, could hit the West Coast. It has shorter-range missiles that could put nukes on South Korea and Japan.
Hard to believe Kim Jong Un will surrender these weapons, his ticket of admission to the table of great powers.
Yet the White House position is that the Iran nuclear deal should be scrapped, and no deal with Kim Jong Un signed that does not result in the “denuclearization” of the peninsula.
If denuclearization means Kim gives up all his nukes and strategic missiles, ceases testing, and allows inspectors into all his nuclear facilities, we may be waiting a long time.
