Posted on 05/16/2018 7:45:41 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
White House is ready to walk away from North Korea as Sarah Sanders says Trump will stay with 'maximum pressure campaign' to force Kim to the table
June 12 Singapore summit between Trump and Kim is suddenly in jeopardy
North Korean government blames joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises
Pyongyang sees the drills as a rehearsal for a full-scale invasion
Kim also canceled meeting with South Korea's president on a few hours' notic
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that North Korean outrage was par for the course and the U.S. was moving ahead with preparations
A senior White House official likewise told DailyMail.com that North Korea's jockeying wasn't unexpected
'The president said he wants to have the meeting,' the official said. 'But if we don't, he'll continue the ongoing maximum pressure campaign.'
By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 13:49 BST, 16 May 2018 | UPDATED: 14:23 BST, 16 May 2018
The White House says remains optimistic that a sit-down will take place between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, despite a flare-up in hostilities over joint military exercises the U.S. and South Korea are conducting.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday morning that North Korean outrage was par for the course and the U.S. was moving ahead with preparations for a June 12 summit in Singapore.
'We're ready to meet, and if that happens that's great. And if it doesn't, we'll see what happens. We're still hopeful that the meeting will take place and we'll continue down that path,' she said moments before on Fox & Friends. 'If it doesn't, we'll continue the maximum pressure campaign that's ongoing.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Running military exercises immediately in advance of the summit can only be viewed by North Korea as a threat.
To negotiate effectively one must put oneself in the mind of the opponent and try to view the world from the opponent’s perspective. If I were Kim I would not trust the US given the long history of betrayals and broken promises in the last 70 years. In 1961 the US sent Cubans into Cuba and then failed to provide the promised support thereby insuring the failure at the Bay of Pigs. In 1974-75 the US reneged on its promised support of the South Vietnamese “allies” ensuring they would fall to the communists. In 1979 the US government abandoned the Shah of Iran, resulting in the takeover by the Islamic militants. In 2010/2011 the US supported the Muslim Brotherhood in its efforts to overthrow its allyEgyptian leader Hosni Mubarack despite Mubarack’s long term support for peace with Israel. Consider also the abandonment of the Iraqi government in 2010, resulting in the rise of ISIS.
Kim must be particularly concerned about the treatment of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Gaddafi succumbed to US and European pressure to abandon his nuclear program. Then the US betrayed him in 2011 when it actively supported the Islamic militant rebels with arms and airstrikes, ultimately resulting in Gaddafi’s brutal death at the hands of the Islamists. The US sent a clear message to dictators. Give up your nuclear weapons and we will kill you.
The President Trump who Kim may negotiate with over nuclear weapons is the same Trump who is “renegotiating” American trade agreements with China and Mexico (NAFTA) and who has stated he will walk away from those agreements. He also just reneged on the agreement with Iran made by his predecessor.
Given the behavior of the US over the past few decades why would any nation trust the US will live up to its agreement. It is hard to imagine that Kim will give up his nuclear weapons and expect to live.
He may be waffling because he is insecure - like every other nation on the planet he has to deal with factions within his own government/military, some of whom would entertain knocking him off. It is a precarious position for him that is exacerbated by the medieval state of his economy and health of his citizens. His security blanket with China has become very thin as China has grown weary of him and rightly understands that his shenanigans increase U.S. power in the region.
It is difficult to see the end-game in this and has been that way from the beginning. The scariest thing for the NK leadership would be the westernization of their nation because freedom of information and thought would lead to their own demise once their people see truth.
Ultimately, China does not want U.S. forces on the peninsula. It is not in their interest to allow the Norks to play with nuclear bombs because Japan is responding by beefing up their own military capability and may join the nuclear game in response (an easy task for them). The deck is stacked against Kim and his regime who appear to face an impossible situation. The sanctions and pressure from China are working so conditions will worsen, but the other option is just as dangerous for the regime.
I don’t think anyone is talking about unification - this is strictly about improving relations.
I have a sneaky feeling that Kim isn’t calling all the shots in North Korea. He has a powerful military that has a big stake in maintaining the status quo. They have no desire to see N. Korea begin to become a Western Style Economy which would threaten their status as the ultimate power and first in all aspects of rewards and power.
Yup. Kim is a piker compared to what our President is used to. President Trump is well aware he is being tested on the world stage.
Let the liberal caterwauling commence!
Our foray into Libya was an epic disaster and what happened there should give anyone pause in trusting the U.S., but the Libyan people were not starving. The situation in North Korea is far more complex for the Kim regime who have to somehow survive and save face even as their people realize how poorly they are doing.
Ghaddafi didn’t have the protection of being a Chinese puppet state. NK is in essence a province of China with limited self rule by a tyrannical regime doing its bidding. The US is not going to do to NK what Obama did to Libya any more than we would attack China militarily. Kim knows that, and Trump is the first to acknowledge that it is China pulling the strings and use leverage on China to get concessions on NK.
China’s nukes are what will protect Kim. He doesn’t need his own, those were just a Chinese ploy to keep us distracted.
Lil’ Kim must be getting a lot of push back from his Generals. A coup and an end to the Kim dynasty may be in the offing.
Just wait and see.
——All things point to an economy on the brink bankruptcy and the personal assets of Kim being in jeopardy.——
What economy? If it crashes will anyone notice ?
NK is gatboy personal asset...
OK, maybe I sound like a Quisling. Why conduct these exercises now?
NK lived with military exercises for decades. SK lived under massive artillery arsenal of NK for decades. NK periodically attacks U.S. or S. Korean troops, killing many of them but have gotten away with it numerous times.
Either NK get all nukes, go about its expansion drive or it gives them up and save its neighbors a lot of trouble. If you think they would just mind their business if we left them alone and some spending money, you are dreaming.
They still have plenty of chemical weapons and missiles of short-to-medium range. They all work. They essentially have had no promise they kept.
No nuke program??
As in poo-poo.
It’s really sad. The people there have suffered longer than the people of Cuba.
If they had a taste of the good life, just a taste, they would rise up and revolt.
Trump understands this. Obama and company never did.
You give people some help in gaining their freedom, and guess what happens they get a taste of it.
The young people in Iran and NK, I am sure want a better life.
I was also just thinking, about how really abhorrent, that Germany couldn’t support the new embassy. It’s like, Germany of all people couldn’t lend some support to Israel.
Trump is the only adult in the room.
Playing nice would make things difficult. When it comes to NK, there is no real "good" outcome. It is either "terrible," "bad," and "tolerable."
——All things point to an economy on the brink bankruptcy and the personal assets of Kim being in jeopardy.——
What economy? If it crashes will anyone notice ?
NK is fatboy personal asset...
Lil kim had declared when all this lovey dovey talky started that he didn’t have a problem with the joint exercise. (Maybe it wasn’t in the papers here.) Either way, I like our response.
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