Minutes after Interfax reported that U.S. and North Korean diplomats may meet in Moscow this week (which would have potentially signaled an easing of tensions), CNN is out saying that for now, Pyongyang isn’t interested.
Over the weekend and ahead of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills which begin today, KCNA called Trump a “war maniac” who is “making the situation so dangerous.” That came amid reports that Kim has been moving missiles around, apparently in preparation for another launch, which many commentators believe to be imminent.
Also over the weekend, Rex Tillerson went on CNN and said, in comments that were apparently not carefully scripted, that the U.S. would pursue a diplomatic solution right up until “the first bomb drops.”
Well according to an official who spoke to CNN on Monday, Pyongyang is sticking to their “commitment to developing a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching all the way to the East coast of the mainland US.”
Up to and until they’ve achieved that goal, Kim isn’t interested in diplomacy. “Before we can engage in diplomacy with the Trump administration, we want to send a clear message that the DPRK has a reliable defensive and offensive capability to counter any aggression from the United States,” the official said. Here’s a bit more:
The North Korean official told CNN that two additional steps are needed to achieve its goal of a reliable ICBM.
One step is an above-ground nuclear detonation, like the kind North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho threatened at the United Nations last month when he suggested leader Kim Jong Un was considering detonating “an unprecedented scale hydrogen bomb” over the Pacific after Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea.
The other step is the “testing of a long-range ICBM capable of reaching Guam – and even further,” the official said.
Both steps are necessary for the DPRK to send that “clear message” to the Trump administration that it possesses an effective nuclear deterrent, the official said.
So there’s that. USDJPY is gyrating all over the place but it’s impossible to pin down the cause because Trump is speaking on tax reform and there’s Comey news on the wires as well.
Time to roll out the DB.ADR chart on the Peninsula outcomes?
Trump being President has nothing to do with No. Korea pursuing a nuclear deterrent..That’s been their geopolitical objective for over 30 years. Trump is simply a foil they can use to justify what they intended all along. They correctly point to Iraq and Libya as cases of the US eliminating threats…was Trump President then??? Right….if only someone like Jimmy Peanut Man had been there to make nice…
No. Korea is holding all the relevant cards…we are not about to attack and all the naval and air exercises are showpieces…unless someone in No. Korea mistakes a big bluff for the real thing and shoots first. Not impossible.
If I were So. Korea I’d start setting aside a very sizable slush fund because Kimbo might be wanting rather large amounts of pay to play money. Just a thought.
A little “what if ” game…if Rocket Man is gone, who takes over – they should be just about out of family members! Next, given the current state of threat, if someone new was moved to the Adult Table and be the “next”, I wonder if they would recognize their entire country could just go Poof at any time and therefore like to sit and chat and maybe work out a treaty? Maybe something really simple, an exchange, they need food and we need peace.
This is another one of the facts about the actor/president Ronald Reagan’s (not to be Thespian confused with the current reality TV host/president) many negative contributions to US geopolitical problems – that his critical thinking ability stunted Republican worshipers selectively forget.
On Dec. 4,1981 Reagan signed EO 12333 which contained Part 2.2 – “Proscription on Assassination.” Previously, EO 11905 (Gerald Ford) had banned political assassinations and EO 12036 (Jimmy Carter) had further banned indirect U.S. involvement in assassinations. However, as early as 1998, these proscriptions against assassination was reinterpreted, and relaxed, for targets who are classified by the United States as connected to terrorism. Further none of these proscriptions against assassination applied to enemy combatants of the US – nor does a President have the authority to make such a military based proscription.
If Obama or Trump had classified KJU and his government as a terrorist organization, KJU could potentially have long since to been a threat to anyone.
If the current administration had collective and sufficient functioning brain cells between them all necessary to walk, chew gum and hold a cogent press conference during the same day – they would have already realized that the public announcement by KJU administration that they considered Trumps Tweets to be a declaration or war. Technically and I suggest legally this makes N. Korea, KJU and his administration, and military forces are a self-declared enemy at war with the US. As such N. Korea and its leaders no longer fall under the restriction of EO 12333, Part 2.2 – or any other Proscriptions of Assassination by our embarrassingly incompetent present and past leaderships – as they can now be legally classified as enemy combatants who are subject to the legal, violent, lethal and permanent removal from the battle field.
Just saying – if we wanted this problem to go away – there is plenty of legal wiggle room for it to have gone away a long time ago. We might also want to note that N. Korea and few other nations have any equivalent to our EO 12333, Part 2.2.
that’s a long stretch thinking we are “at war” in order to kill the little weasel. should be an easier way… wonder who prepares his food?
Assassinating a single leader doesn’t stop a country with actual armed forces from being a threat. And if the North Koreans were able to put two and two together and figure out that their leader was assassinated by the country that they’re still technically at war with, they probably wouldn’t take that sitting down.