Tag: north korea nuclear weapons
With Major Concession To Kim, Trump Gets ‘Denuclearization’ — Minus Details

With Major Concession To Kim, Trump Gets ‘Denuclearization’ — Minus Details

Emerging from their summit in Singapore, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un proclaimed that they had reached an historic deal to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. But while the details of the nuclear agreement would be left to future talks, Trump immediately agreed to end military exercises with South Korea.

“We’re ready to write a new chapter between our nations,” Trump said after their meeting, and added that he had already developed “a very special relationship” with the young dictator from the Hermit Kingdom. He vowed that the removal and destruction of the north’s nuclear arsenal would proceed “as fast as it can mechanically and physically be done,” with complete guarantees of verification. Although he sounded a boastful note about his negotiating prowess, it was not clear what Kim had promised to do or how the United States would be able to ensure that any promises are actually fulfilled.

Indeed, the only firm shift in policy that resulted from the meeting was the abrupt end of joint military exercises that have long irritated Pyongyang — without any notice to either US military leaders in the region or to the U.S. ally in South Korea. Analysts worried that Trump had surrendered the most critical means of leverage to ensure that North Korea actually gives up its nuclear weapons, on the basis of a smile and a vague promise.

Trump held aloft the agreement that the two leaders signed in a gesture of triumph, but its text was not immediately released to the press.

 

 

 

Trump’s North Korea Failure Was Predictable — And It Won’t Be The Last

Trump’s North Korea Failure Was Predictable — And It Won’t Be The Last

So inevitable was the implosion of Trump’s North Korea initiative that many observers — notably in these pages — predicted it with utter certainty. Their negative expectations were not based on ideology, since experts from across the political spectrum and across partisan differences reached exactly the same conclusion. This outcome was ordained by the incompetence of the president, the officials he has gathered around him, and their shared dismissal of diplomatic procedure and advice.

Many of the same experts who warned Trump that nuclear negotiations are inherently complicated, especially with a rogue regime, had likewise feared that John Bolton would wreck whatever progress might be possible. To the extent that Bolton’s yapping about Libya alienated North Korea, those who disparaged him were correct — and that’s not exactly surprising, except perhaps to Trump.

As it turns out — and this was equally predictable — Trump is not a brilliant dealmaker. His impressive power to manipulate the emotions of people even stupider than himself, in very large numbers, is useless when negotiating with an intelligent and well-informed counterpart. Long ago, Trump’s failed business career proved that he is impulsive, mentally lazy, and badly informed; his more recent political career has showed that he is frivolous, obnoxious, and witless. Those adolescent qualities enhance his stature on Fox News, but they’re unhelpful in matters of state.

Well before he pretended on Thursday to “cancel” his planned June summit with Kim Jong-un — which North Korea effectively and unilaterally cancelled several days ago — Trump’s failure was obvious.

First the North Koreans saw through his blustering threats, and then they saw through his pathetic eagerness to make a deal. On the day that Trump accepted the summit, Kim won the American recognition his country has long desired. Not only did an American president agree to meet with him personally, but went on to praise him fulsomely. The little despot got what he wanted most before the two sides even discussed the shape of the bargaining table.

Kim released a pair of American prisoners, which cost him nothing, blew up a defunct nuclear site, and walked away with his diplomatic winnings. And of course he still has his nuclear warheads. Meanwhile, Trump has alienated our allies in Japan and South Korea, and driven North Korea closer to China and Russia. He was exposed to the world as a laughable fraud (and probably won’t need that new white-tie outfit for next year’s Nobel ceremony).

Not that Trump will learn anything from this experience. Instead he will continue to boast about himself and blame his mess on others. But the pundits who told us that Trump was “onto something” with his juvenile japes and threats and his “unconventional” approach to international relations should be ashamed. They misled the public and made fools of themselves.

Trump’s policy consistently humiliates our country and damages the prospects for a peaceful, sustainable, and stable world. The Trump White House is a clown show, a right-wing parody of governance, and a boon to every despotic adversary of our values. It often appears as if Trump is a conscious agent of hostile powers. Whatever his motives, he cannot be trusted with any such serious business as nuclear disarmament.

Sooner or later, even his supporters will have to face what everyone else has already realized: He is undermining the prestige and power of the United States, and driving the world closer to catastrophe.

Danziger: We Were Just Talking About You

Danziger: We Were Just Talking About You

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.

Arrogant And Ignorant, Trump Is Making The World More Dangerous

Arrogant And Ignorant, Trump Is Making The World More Dangerous

This planet just became a more dangerous place to live.

It may not have seemed so last week, when Donald Trump agreed to meet Kim Jong Un for negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. Trump’s abrupt diplomatic offer was certainly an improvement on his jeering, boasting, and threatening on Twitter — even if he doesn’t understand that he gave away exactly what the dictator wanted most, without getting anything in return. The prospect of talks is almost always preferable to the possibility of war, which is why previous presidents consistently sought ways to engage the hereditary despots in Pyongyang.

The difference is that those presidents also knew enough not to approve any discussion without adequate preparation, let alone the total absence of rational planning and knowledgeable staff. Only a figure as arrogantly stupid as Trump would assume that he can handle such a complex and delicate situation on his own, without the military and diplomatic expertise that is at every president’s disposal.

That was why the State Department and the National Security Council spent many hours secretly preparing former president Bill Clinton and his companions for their August 2009 trip to bring home two American journalists imprisoned by the North Korean government.

Although the Obama administration publicly pretended to keep the rescue mission at arm’s length, its officials informed and oversaw everything that the Clinton party did, down to their deadpan facial expressions in the official photograph taken after their encounter with Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un.

Every word was scripted with absolute precision.  Not only were Laura Ling and Euna Kim released, but so were several South Korean prisoners. More important, Clinton’s discussion with Kim led directly to the resumption of talks with the United States, which delayed the North’s acquisition of nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles for years.

The results of the 2009 mission were a testament to the 42nd president’s own skills, yet he would be the first to admit that the weeks of instruction and preparation — not to mention the knowledge about North Korea acquired during his presidency — had been crucial to a happy outcome.

Flash forward to a new president who starts off knowing nothing, who refuses to read anything longer than a page or two, and whose hostile belligerence has led to the rapid dismantling of the State Department. As Trump contemplates meeting with Kim in just two months, he has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, further destabilizing the apparatus needed to support his diplomatic adventure. And he has replaced Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, a former Congressman from Kansas who has been running the CIA.

Pompeo’s appointment is not a promising development.

While it is hard to imagine him making matters any worse for the deeply demoralized Foreign Service, Pompeo clearly shares the blustering, foolhardy attitudes toward nuclear negotiation voiced by Trump himself. He has hinted that the solution to our problems with North Korea may lie in military action, and even joked about assassinating Kim.

More troubling still is that Pompeo, like Trump, believes the United States should scuttle the nuclear agreement with Iran that was achieved after years of negotiation supported by our European allies, Russia, and China. Although the Trump administration certifies that the Iranians have lived up to its requirements in every respect, Pompeo has said, “I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal.” Which would free the Iranians to resume their own nuclear program — and increase the likelihood of another disastrous war in the Middle East.

Indeed, Trump appears prepared to reinstate sanctions on Iran, in violation of that agreement, on May 12 — just around the time he is expecting to sit down with Kim to forge a similar agreement with North Korea. Evidently neither he nor Pompeo nor any of the strutting hawks in the White House realize that the chances of a deal with Pyongyang are unlikely to survive a rupture with Tehran.

Nobody will accept the word of an American president after Trump violates the agreement that his predecessor reached with Iran. Even if North Korea signs an agreement, its erratic leader will hardly feel obligated to honor the deal when the United States so casually discards its own commitments.

 Let’s hope someone can explain all this to Trump, in two pages or less, before it is too late.

IMAGE: Mike Pompeo testifies before a Senate Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria