President Trump Should Connect Both Ends of Korea Policy

American Spectator ^ | January 25, 2019 | Doug Bandow

[Twotone]

A year ago the Left was convinced that President Donald Trump was going to plunge the world into nuclear war in Korea. Today it is upset because he hasn’t done so — or at least has yet to achieve what no other president managed to do, force the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to disgorge its nuclear weapons. Neoconservatives are mad that he is talking with instead of bombing the North’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. And that the president has mooted the possibility of withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea.

It doesn’t seem to matter what he does or doesn’t do. The usual foreign policy suspects will never be happy with him.

Not that such criticism bothers him. President Trump should combine two unpopular but excellent ideas: seek a deal with the North and withdraw American forces from the South. Indeed, a trade of troops for nukes would offer a near perfect resolution of the Korea challenge.

The Korean peninsula, for years a Japanese colony, became an American problem in 1945 after Tokyo’s surrender in World War II. Two Koreas emerged from the American and Russian occupation zones. In 1950 the DPRK’s Kim Il-Sung sought to forcibly reunite the peninsula. He nearly succeeded, before losing almost everything when the U.S. intervened to stop him. Then the People’s Republic of China joined the fight, leading to more years of bitter conflict and an armistice close to where the war started.

[allendale]

If South Korea cannot or will not defend what it has, then it has no basis to exist. Its existence cannot be based on the expectation that Americans will sacrifice blood and treasure to ensure their well being. The globalists are willing to sacrifice whatever American blood and treasure is needed to achieve their dreams.

[2ndDivisionVet]

How many years did you spend defending Korea?