Tag: North Korea

What Happened In Hanoi?

I have been waiting to see what will be said about the massive failure of the Trump/Kim “summit”……so far it has pretty much taken a backseat to the Congressional hearing with Cohen a Trump fixer from the past……

So let me help out……the talks collapsed….epic failure on Trump’s push for some sort of positive foreign policy legacy…..!

“Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times,” President Trump said Thursday after his second summit with Kim Jong Un abruptly collapsed. A working lunch and the signing of a joint agreement were scrapped after talks fell apart on the summit’s second day, causing confusion among the press corps, the New York Times reports. “It was about the sanctions basically,” Trump said at a press conference. “They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that.” Trump said Kim had been willing to dismantle some of the country’s nuclear infrastructure in return for sanctions being lifted, but wanted to leave other parts of the program intact, the Guardian reports.


Trump said a third summit with Kim might not happen for “a long time,” but defended him as “quite a guy and quite a character.” Trump said Kim had promised him he would continue the suspension of nuclear and long-range missile testing. He said the US would continue not taking part in joint military exercises with South Korea, which he was already opposed to because of the “unfair” cost to the US military. Trump, who departed Vietnam on Air Force One soon after the talks collapsed, said he still has a “great relationship” with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, the BBC reports. Earlier Thursday, Kim surprised observers by answering a reporter’s question, Time reports. The North Korean leader, asked if he felt confident about the talks, said he had a “feeling that good results will come out.”

Talk about putting “lipstick on a pig”…….but then Trump will lie as often as he has to to massage those 35% supporters……

According to NK’s foreign minister the talks did not end the way that Trump tried to pass off…….


When President Trump explained to reporters why his summit with Kim Jong Un ended prematurely, he cited one big reason: North Korea wanted the US to lift all sanctions in exchange for the dismantling of its main nuclear facility. Not so, says North Korea’s foreign minister. The North asked for only a partial lifting of sanctions, Ri Yong Ho said at a hastily arranged news conference, reports the BBC. “We offered a realistic proposal in this meeting,” he said. Specifically, the North agreed to decommission its nuclear facility at Yongbyon under the supervision of US experts, reports the Washington Post.


In exchange, the North wanted the US to end only those sanctions that affected civilians, though he did not provide details of exactly what that means. “Given the current level of trust between North Korea and the United States, this was the maximum step for denuclearization we can offer,” Ri told reporters, per the New York Times. However, the AP reports that Ri also said the North had been prepared to offer a written pledge to halt nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and that Washington wasted an opportunity that “may not come again.”

Let’s break it down to make it simple to understand……

 

US Version:
According to President Trump, the split came entirely on the basis of North Korea’s demand for “full” sanctions relief. Though he dodged some reporters’ questions seeking specifics, he gave the impression that the North Korean proposal was to close the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, but only for full lifting of all international sanctions. Trump walked away at this point.

Trump said that there was basic agreement to have more talks in the future, and that the US and North Korea would continue to talk until a future meeting.

North Korea’s Version:
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Trump’s claim was inaccurate. He says North Korea offered to dismantle all its nuclear material production, including everything around Yongbyon, and was only asking for “partial” sanction relief. It was at this point Trump walked away.

Ri was much less hopeful of future talks, saying that North Korea’s position isn’t going to change, and that right now North Kora believes that the US is not ready to make a deal. Subsequent reports from North Korea’s state media, however, did anticipate future talks would happen.

Who to believe? After all Trump trust Kim at his word…..so should we just go about this whitewash?

But South Korea (we seem to forget about them in this kabuki play) has a version as well…….

South Korea Says:
Former South Korean Unification Minister Chong se-hyun, however, suggests that neither of these was the real problem. Instead, John Bolton showed up at the last minute, and started demanding that North Korea not only provide a full accounting of its nuclear program’s past, but also full accounts of North Korea’s chemical and biological weapons to.

Interestingly, this didn’t immediately derail the talks, but led North Korea to ask for more sanctions relief in return. It was at that point, apparently, that the US walked away.

So can we blame the war hawk for the failure? I am talking about the slug Bolton.

This opportunity will not come again under the Trump heavy fist…..it will take years for the opportunity to return…..maybe now we will return to diplomacy and stop the theatrics.

So to answer the question…..it failed because there was NO prep work done by diplomats….all there was was a president trying desperately to look like a statesman…..and he FAILED miserably!

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No Deal, Lucille

Looks like the trip Trump took to Hanoi may have been a fart in a hurricane……..the MSM made it to be something grand in scale and it ended with a whimper of a presser……

A planned signing ceremony between President Trump and Kim Jong Un capping the summit was scrapped Thursday in Vietnam, with no agreement reached and talks ending about an hour and a half early.

This led to a conference from President Trump, during which he called the meeting a “very productive time.” He said there were options, but that the US “decided not to do any of the options,” and that sometimes, the US “has to walk.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also talked of progress, but said it “didn’t make sense for the United States.” He claimed to be optimistic for a “really good outcome” in the future, adding that meant total denuclearization of North Korea.

Trump said all North Korea sanctions will remain in place, and confirmed to reporters that this was the sticking point. He said Kim had “wanted sanctions lifted but weren’t willing to give us the areas we wanted.” He added North Korea would ultimately give in “at a certain point in time.”

Trump said Kim has a “certain vision, and it’s not exactly our vision.” He also called Kim “quite a character,” despite praising him repeatedly throughout the talks. Trump did, however, say he trusts Kim, and that Kim has promised not to resume any testing.

(antiwar.com)

Oh God the press conference was all about Trump and his ego…..we still do not know what if anything was accomplished with our dear Beloved Supreme Leader and Li’l Kim…..

Stay Tuned….More To Come!

Look! It’s North Korea Again!

The news is that Trump will have a second meeting….Hanoi to be second “summit” with Kim in Vietnam, Hanoi to be accurate (bad idea but that is just me)…..https://lobotero.com/2019/02/11/hanoi-wtf/

Once again the country will be laser focus on North Korea and Trump…….so I need to throw a bit of information at my reader that is not known by most……

First, a brief history that could explain everything…….

A good starting point for understanding the ongoing conflict between North and South Korea is the agreement between the United States and Japan in 1905, known as the Taft-Katsura Memorandum, which was signed as Japan was defeating Russia in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. In that document the U.S. agreed to the Japanese colonization of Korea in trade for the American occupation of Hawaii (which the U.S. had annexed in 1898) and the Philippines (which the U.S. had acquired as booty in 1898 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War). Koreans were not consulted about this arrangement.

In 1910 Japan annexed Korea, making it a subservient colony of the homeland; this had also been sanctioned by the U.S. In the Taft-Katsura Memorandum five years previously. Japanese rule was brutal: it is estimated that at least 18,000 Koreans were killed due to resisting the occupation. Koreans were forced to take Japanese names and speak only Japanese, young Korean males were impressed into the military and sent to Japan to work for slave wages, and tens of thousands of young Korean women were forced into sexually slavery for the pleasure of Japanese males.

Not surprisingly, when Japan surrendered to the U.S. and its allies on August 15, 1945, Koreans were elated at this apparent liberation from Japanese oppression. They were ready and willing to form their own government: a quickly formed Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence (CPKI) organized people’s committees throughout the country to coordinate the transition to independence. On August 28, 1945 the CPKI announced that it would function as the temporary national government of Korea. On September 6th delegates from throughout Korea, both north and south of the artificially imposed demarcation line gathered in Seoul to create the Korean People’s Republic of Korea (PRK). Coincidentally, the Koreans announcement of their unified independence came only four days after Ho Chi Minh’s declaration of a unified independence for all of Vietnam.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/korea-brief-history-explains-everything/5666183

Before Trump meets Kim he should take in all assessments…….this is an assessment offered by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (a neocon think tank)……..

The tools for implementing this policy included the North Korean Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 and Executive Order 13810, which made it possible to sanction new targets with connections to illicit finance, cyberattacks, and human rights violations. In the face of over 40 ballistic missile and nuclear tests – including three ICBM tests possibly capable of striking the U.S. mainland – as well as the successful detonation of a thermonuclear device, the Trump administration responded with multiple UN Security Council resolutions to reinforce the existing multilateral sanctions regime. In the face of such pressure, and buttressed by a vastly improved nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program, North Korea initiated a process of diplomatic outreach to its southern neighbor, which soon led to the North’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. After the Olympics, Kim quickly arranged for his first summit meetings with the presidents of China and South Korea, before extending a surprise invitation in March to President Trump.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/01/31/midterm-assessment-north-korea/

Now the question that begs asking……can progress truly be made with Trump’s style of negotiating?

Asked and answered?

The Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un show has been picked up for a second season, which will kick off with a live broadcast from Vietnam at the end of February.

The show’s producers and the TV networks were so thrilled with the first season in Singapore in 2018, the sequel was a no brainer. The thrill of the first ever meeting between leaders from the United States and North Korea – and these two leaders at that – merited round-the-clock coverage. The media was blanketed with breathless analysis for weeks on end, and on the day of the main event analysts in capitals across the globe stayed up all night to watch it live. Who could resist?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/08/is-progress-with-north-korea-possible-under-trumps-style-of-diplomacy

Trump has said that there is NO rush for denuclearization…….

Just days ahead of the second summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, President Trump is rejecting any sense of urgency, saying that he is “in no rush” and sees “no pressing time schedule” for finalizing denuclearization.

Trump and Kim agreed on denuclearization in general during last year’s summit, and Trump is optimistic about this next round of talks, to be held in Hanoi. He says “very positive things are going to happen.”

Progress has been slow going, and North Korea has expressed particular frustration that the US has further increased sanctions and other restrictions on them after starting to dismantle the program. Trump insists all sanctions will remain in place even after these talks.

So while Trump is expecting a positive outcome, and the two leaders appear to get along quite well, North Korea’s expectation to get something about of the deal, and Trump’s determination not to give them anything, is a big obstacle to get over.

Is the master of the “con” tamping down expectations before the new summit?

Probably not.

For he , Trump, has said that he would continue his bromance with Kim in yet another “summit” down the road…

Speaking at the White House a week before the hotly anticipated Hanoi Summit with Kim Jong Un, President Trump said that he expects there to be more meetings scheduled after this upcoming summit.

“I don’t think this will be the last meeting by any chance,” Trump said. He added that he’d like to ease sanctions on North Korea, but would need to see “meaningful” progress from them first before making any changes.

(antiwar.com)

And the “con” continues!

There is an unusual happening in North Korea….Kim is taking  hard line with opponents of any peace deal….

A week ahead of the next summit with President Trump, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is reported to have removed some 50 to 70 people who were overwhelmingly hawks seen as resistant to the diplomatic process.

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, these people are being targeted under a new anti-corruption initiative, but are being singled out as hawks. Some are being jailed, others exiled, and still others are being executed outright.

This collection of officials were seen to have been amassing power within the government, and some had used those positions to stock away some illegally acquired wealth. The money being confiscated in the purge in also shoring up North Korea’s economy in the immediate term.

(antiwar.com)

This is a lot to take in and I am no Asian expert so if you need more info then I suggest you use the Google machine.

Could I possibly stumbled onto why the Hanoi site was chosen?

Vietnamese carrier Bamboo Airways will sign a deal with Boeing Co to purchase 10 planes on the sidelines of this week’s Trump-Kim summit, an airline executive said on Sunday.

The carrier, which is owned by property and leisure company FLC Group and made its first flights in January, placed a provisional order last year for 20 Boeing 787 widebody jets worth $5.6 billion at list prices.

“We will sign with Boeing a deal to buy 10 more Boeing 787s. This is different from the deal signed earlier for 20 Boeing planes,” said the executive who declined to be named due to the confidentiality of the matter.

“That means we will have ordered 30 Boeing 787s. The deal will be signed during the summit,” the executive said. (Reporting by Khanh Vu Editing by Keith Weir)

The saga continues!

Hanoi! WTF?

It has been announced the draft dodging president will meet our enemy Kim in Hanoi Vietnam……

Sorry I spit on this decision!

As a Vietnam vet I do not feel that Hanoi is a proper meeting site, DaNang would have been better…..but I would not expect a guy that daddy bought him some bone spurs so he could stay behind and play little rich boy while others did the right thing and served their country.

That rant is over with more on the news of the “summit”…..

Trump is now confirming that the talks will be on February 27 and 28 in Hanoi, and said he expects North Korea to “become a great Economic Powerhouse” because of how great and capable Kim is.

The two leaders held a summit last year in Singapore, and had agreed to a future meeting at the time, though the exact details were long withheld from the public. The goal of the talks will be to try to restart a peace and nuclear disarmament process for the Korean Peninsula.

While agreements were made in the first summit, the US refusal to give North Korea anything in return for its progress on denuclearization was quickly damaging the confidence in the process, and slowed everything to a virtual halt. US officials are reportedly open to offering some concessions during these talks, though whether they will hit what North Korea really wants, a peace treaty, remains to be seen.

The state of North Korea’s commercial airliner fleet somewhat limits where such summits can be held, and the choice of Vietnam is an interesting one. Hanoi does host a North Korean Embassy, though CNN suggested that the US might prefer Da Nang as a choice because it recently hosted an economic summit

(antiwar.com)

Only a coward would put his personally ego over the feelings of the people that fought so he could stay home and play with the part of a little rich boy in Manhattan.

Trump….BITE ME!

He by the way….you know how Trump has such glowing things to say about Kim well here is what he thinks……

North Korea accused the Trump Administration of being a billionaires’ club that harbors a “policy of racism” while exacerbating social inequalities and denying freedom of the press and health coverage to citizens.

The “White Paper on Human Rights Violations in the U.S. in 2017,” issued by the Institute of International Studies in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Wednesday, claimed that human rights in the U.S. have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office last year.

“Racial discrimination and misanthropy are serious maladies inherent to the social system of the U.S., and they have been aggravated since Trump took office,” the paper read. “The racial violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 is a typical example of the acme of the current administration’s policy of racism.”

The paper, which is being circulated by North Korean diplomats in Geneva, did not refer to the row between North Korea and the U.S. and its allies over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, nor to the international sanctions imposed against it.

(Newsweek)

Hahahahahaha!

Sorry had a mental moment of jocularity….

I regret it but I harbor strong feelings of dislike for Hanoi….I am not one of those tree hugging vets that wants all to forgive and forget….let bygones be bygones….that just not happening.

Change venue!  Hanoi is NOT a good choice but then this president has made few “good choices”.

North Korea Returns

WE have great news that light of our lives, Trump, will once again have a glad hand meeting with Lil Kim of the North Korea……

President Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month, Reuters reports. The White House tweeted news of the planned “second summit” Friday after Trump reportedly met with North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half and talked about denuclearization and another Trump-Kim meeting. The tweet said the location of the meet-up is TBD, but Vietnam and Thailand may be contenders, according to reports. The fact that the envoy ventured to Washington DC (North Korean officials typically have to stay near the UN in New York) and Trump’s willingness to meet with him are signs that the president is “eager to jump-start stalled nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang,” Politico says. Trump and Kim first met face-to-face last June in Singapore.

Like the report stated no location has come to the forefront…. but I think some place warm will be advised……

I realize that most Americans have a very short attention span…..so let me help you with a quick review of the last “summit” of the two goombas…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/05/22/north-korea-as-the-date-draws-near/

https://lobotero.com/2018/06/19/those-talks-with-north-korea/

https://lobotero.com/2018/07/03/north-korea-continues-to-unravel/

I have seen NO progress other than NK making nice with its Southern cousins……What would make this “summit” possible?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday he hopes to extend his high-stakes nuclear summitry with President Donald Trump into 2019, but also warns Washington not to test North Koreans’ patience with sanctions and pressure, the AP reports. During his televised New Year’s speech, Kim said he’s ready to meet with Trump at any time to produce an outcome “welcomed by the international community.” However, he said the North will be forced to take a different path if the United States “continues to break its promises and misjudges the patience of our people by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes ahead with sanctions and pressure.” Kim also said the United States should continue to halt its joint military exercises with ally South Korea and not deploy strategic military assets to the South.

All this “diplomacy” (a laugh statement at best) has been about the nukes that NK has or is planning to develop right? and I think that other things might need to be included…that is if Trump can talk and chew gum at the same time…

What could be so important?

Ever heard of biological weapons?

…the vividness of the nuclear threat has overshadowed other weapons programs, limiting the attention and policy input that they deserve. This paper focuses on North Korea’s biological weapons (BW).

Accurately assessing the threat from North Korea’s biological weapons is challenging. Whereas North Korea has publicly declared its will to become a nuclear power many times, it has been less overt about its intention or capability for biological weapons. BW capabilities are inherently hard to detect and measure. While nuclear programs can be monitored by the number of nuclear tests and the success of missile tests, weaponizing and cultivating pathogens can stay invisible behind closed doors. Moreover, equipment used for BW production are often dual-use for agriculture, making external monitoring and verification virtually impossible. Limited information on North Korea’s BW program leads to a low threat perception that may undermine preparation and response efforts.

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/north-koreas-biological-weapons-program-known-and-unknown

Please don’t get me wrong I am pleased that US and NK are talking…..and these talks should cover a wide array of WMDs….unfortunately the underlying feelings is that these meetings are nothing better than a coffee clutch….a photo op for PR purposes.

But I am with others that are saying “Don’t waste another “summit””…….

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have agreed to meet for a second summit at the end of next month. Agreeing to this was probably a mistake — but to have any hope of producing results, Trump will have to prepare much more carefully than he did last time.

There’s been virtually no progress in meeting even the vague goals set out in the communique from the first summit. The North has taken only cosmetic steps toward dismantling its nuclear and long-range missile programs, while continuing to produce missiles and fissile material. And it has so far refused to provide an inventory of its arsenals — a minimum starting point for more detailed negotiations.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-20/trump-shouldn-t-waste-second-north-korea-summit-with-kim-jong-un

But let’s say there is a “summit”…..will it be another top secret meeting of two overweight leaders exchanging burger?  Or will there be a road map to some sort of progress?

There is a possibility of complete denuclearization of North Korea in the years to come. But Washington needs to handle diplomacy in a manner similar to steps taken toward normalization of relations with Vietnam. Those steps involved a Road Map involving graduated unilateral confidence building measures on both sides. When Step 1 was completed, the two countries then went on to Step 2 and similarly to Step 3 and later achieved complete normalization of relations.

https://original.antiwar.com/Michael_Haas/2019/01/18/where-is-the-north-korean-road-map/

Learn Stuff!

Meanwhile Back In North Korea

About 6 months ago Our Dear Supreme Leader (people you do realize that I am being sarcastic when I type that title, right?) stood before the world and told us that NK would be an ex-nuke developer soon…..that we have a handshake agreement.

And while we are being lied to the North Korean leader keeps building his missiles to carry those weapons that he has promised to give up……

A Washington think tank released a report Monday identifying more than a dozen hidden missile bases North Korea has kept up and running even as President Trump touts his work on denuclearization with Kim Jong Un. The Center for Strategic and International Studies says it suspects North Korea has 20 missile operating bases that are undeclared by the government, and it has located 13 of them. The New York Times says the revelation “suggests a great deception,” with Pyongyang quietly continuing its ballistic missile program and even making improvements at these secret sites while publicly declaring its intention to dismantle its main missile launch site. Fox News notes that the report comes as denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea have stalled—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s planned meeting with his North Korean counterpart last week was delayed indefinitely.

“What everybody is worried about is that Trump is going to accept a bad deal—they give us a single test site and dismantle a few other things, and in return they get a peace agreement” that formally ends the Korean War, says the North Korea expert who leads the CSIS’ Beyond Parallel program, which released the report. Another expert on nuclear nonproliferation called the program’s analysis “excellent” but disagreed with the Times‘ assessment of the situation, noting on Twitter: “To call this a ‘deception’ is deeply misleading. Kim Jong Un publicly stated that North Korea would shift to the mass producing nuclear weapons in 2018. These bases and their missiles are well-known, long-standing and have never been offered for dismantlement by the DPRK.” Per CNBC, the largest ballistic missiles possibly housed in the bases identified in the report are believed to be able to reach the US. (Read more North Korea stories.)

But Dear Trump just cannot admit that he was played like a cheap drum by Kim……..

A story emerged Monday suggesting that North Korea was violating the spirit of promises to reduce its nuclear arsenal. Not so, says President Trump. “The story in the New York Times concerning North Korea developing missile bases is inaccurate,” he tweeted. “We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new – and nothing happening out of the normal. Just more Fake News. I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!” The Times story he’s referring to was based on a new study by Center for Strategic and International Studies, whose researchers say they have found more than a dozen secret ballistic missile bases in North Korea. The newspaper acknowledges, however, that US intelligence agencies have long known about this network.

Here is how the Times frames the issue: “The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site—a step it began, then halted—while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads.” South Korea objected to this characterization even before Trump did, also using the phrase “nothing new.” A spokesman for President Moon Jae-in adds: “North Korea has never promised to dismantle its missile bases, nor has it ever joined any treaty that obligates it to dismantle them. So calling this a ‘deception’ is not appropriate.” That didn’t stop Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, who sits on the Foreign Relations panel, from asserting that Trump was “getting played by Kim Jong Un,” per Bloomberg.

Yet another pile of bovine fecal matter fed to the American public.

Enjoy your meal!

North Korea, Along The Way

North Korea is once again in the news….NO we do not have a peace treaty and we have not got a deal to dump all nukes on the Peninsula……basically something nice was said by Kim about Trump and that warranted a couple days of news reports.

Some have said that the US is going about the situation with North Korea all wrong……

U.S. President Donald Trump came to office clearly determined to reverse his predecessor’s policy toward North Korea, one that he saw as stagnant and ineffective. “The era of strategic patience is over,” Trump declared in 2017. Other Republican voices echoed this promise to chart a new path. When Trump’s first approach, rooted in threats and bellicosity, offered little reason for optimism, the president shifted to diplomatic engagement.

What harm, many asked, could come from negotiations? “I don’t believe this is a situation where the president has anything to lose,” explained former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert. In most cases, such confidence would be justified. What harm could possibly come from diplomatic engagement? North Korea, however, is not most cases, and the harm to American interests that appears to be emerging as a direct result of the Singapore talks may prove to be quite significant indeed.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/09/where-the-us-went-wrong-on-north-korea/

The news now is in a parade to celebrate 70 years of a Kim at the wheel….there were the usual suspects marching in review but what was not usual was the lack of missiles in the parade make-up….

North Korea rolled out some of its latest tanks and its best-trained goose-stepping units through Kim Il Sung Square in a major military parade Sunday to mark its 70th anniversary, but held back its most advanced missiles and devoted nearly half the event to underscoring Kim Jong Un’s new strategy of putting economic development front and center. Tens of thousands of North Koreans waving brightly colored plastic bouquets filled Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square as the parade began, reports the AP. Pyongyang residents have been training for months for the anniversary and held up the bouquets to spell words and slogans that can be seen from the VIP viewing area. Those unable to attend at the square lined the streets around town to cheer convoys carrying the troops after they complete parade duties.

Although North Korea stages military parades almost every year, and held one just before the Olympics in South Korea in February, Sunday’s parade came at a particularly sensitive time. Kim’s effort to ease tensions with President Trump has stalled since their June summit in Singapore. With tensions again on the rise, a parade featuring the very missiles that so unnerved Trump last year, and led to a dangerous volley of insults from both leaders, could have been seen as a deliberate provocation. The “new line” of economic development has been Kim’s top priority this year. He claims to have perfected his nuclear arsenal enough to deter US aggression and devote his resources to raising the standard of living. This year’s celebrations also mark the revival of North Korea’s iconic mass games, which involve tens of thousands holding up placards or dancing in precise unison in a display of national unity

This should send the analysts into a frenzy trying to explain what Kim is doing.

Is this something positive or negative?

Well Trump has received another letter and a request……

President Donald Trump has received a request from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a follow-up to their historic June summit, and planning is in motion to make it happen. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that no details had been finalized, the AP reports. Trump had told reporters last week that he was expecting a letter from Kim. Sanders said Trump has received the letter, which she described as “very warm, very positive.” The White House will not release the full letter unless Kim agrees it should be made public, she said. “The primary purpose of the letter was to request and look to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to and are already in the process of coordinating that,” Sanders said at her first press briefing in nearly three weeks. She cited the letter as “further evidence of progress” in relations between the leaders.

On Sunday, Trump offered praise for Kim following a North Korean military parade that, unlike past parades, downplayed the missiles and nuclear weapons that brought North Korea to the brink of military conflict with the United States just a year ago. “This is a big and very positive statement from North Korea,” Trump tweeted Sunday about the parade. “Thank you To Chairman Kim. We will both prove everyone wrong! There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other! Much better than before I took office.” Sanders also cited the parade in her comments Monday. “The recent parade in North Korea, for once, was not about their nuclear arsenal,” she said, characterizing the event as “a sign of good faith.” Trump, she said, had achieved “tremendous success” with his policies so far toward North Korea “and this letter was further evidence of progress in that relationship.”

I think a second meeting would benefit only Kim…..the US would get little out of it and in turn would look like we were graveling to Kim.

And the beat goes on!