President Trump receives “beautiful letter” from North Korean leader
Trump holds out hope for third summit with the Kim Jong Un.
Last June, President Donald Trump was preparing to meet North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong Un for the “Singapore Summit”.
This June, there has been no discernible progress made toward officially ending the Korean War or transitioning North Korea to something other than a rogue regime. However, Trump remains optimistic and committed to ending the chaos from Korea.
Ahead of his trip to Iowa, Trump chatted with White House reporters and updated reporters on the state of diplomacy between the two nations.
While disclosing he had received another “very warm” letter from Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump said Tuesday he holds out hope for another summit with the North Korean leader.
Still seeking to reach some kind of agreement with Kim regarding his nuclear weapons programs, Trump also cited news reports that Kim’s assassinated half-brother Kim Jong Nam once served as a CIA asset in North Korea.
“I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices,” Trump said at the White House before leaving for campaign stops in Iowa.
Trump did not disclose the contents of his new letter from Kim, but said it was “beautiful” and that he still hopes for some kind of agreement over his nuclear weapons, possibly as part of a third summit with the North Korean leader.
National security adviser John Bolton also indicates that a third summit is still on the table, despite the complete failure of the Hanoi Summit earlier this year.
“We’re ready when they are,” he told a business forum hosted by the Wall Street Journal.
Bolton dismissed reports that a rift had developed between him and the president over recent missile tests by North Korea, blaming US adversaries for trying to stoke divisions.
North Korea, Iran, China and Venezuela “have made a decision … to try to sow disinformation about the administration,” he said.
Disinformation about North Korea is also being published and promoted. One article that was share widely over social media had a general associated with the Hanoi Summit failure being fed to piranhas.
Meanwhile in North Korea … https://t.co/nq5a2QdbiA
— North Wales Live (@northwaleslive) June 9, 2019
Seoul-based entrepreneur Andrew Salmon, who did an excellent analysis of recent stories related to executions and exiles, urges extreme caution when reading reports about North Korea.
…”[W]hen reporting on North Korea, it is critical for reporters to warn their readers about the impossibility of checking facts, and also to include expert commentary, for North Korea watchers have a nose for what is credible and what is not.
With all this said, I advise readers to turn their hogwash antennae to their most sensitive pitches when reading sensationalist reporting on North Korea.
Meanwhile, other experts on the region sense that there will be a third summit before the year ends.
“Trump wants a foreign policy victory and Kim needs sanctions relief,” said Frank Aum, senior expert on North Korea at the U.S. Institute of Peace, putting the probability of a third summit at “slightly better than 50-50.”
“The question is how desperate is each side for a deal,” he said.
…”I don’t think Trump wants to wait to the point that North Korea conducts a more provocative action that may require a more aggressive U.S. approach or suggest a failure in Trump’s North Korea policy before the elections,” Aum said.
He added that the current impasse over matching North Korea’s denuclearization steps with U.S. sanctions relief would ideally be broken during Trump’s meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul at the end of this month.
“Ideally … they will agree on greater flexibility, which they can then signal to Pyongyang,” Aum said.
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Comments
I worry that Pres. Trump will get an ultimatum from Kim Jong Un sometime early next year saying “Give me $XX million and lift the sanctions or I’ll launch a bunch of missiles over Japan, maybe sink a S. Korean ship or two – and try to ruin your 2020 reelection prospects!”
If that happens, will it torpedo Pres. Trump’s actual reelection prospects? No idea!
Lil Buddha is in no position to make demands.
This stuff is not for the faint of heart.
That is so last administration. There is a new team in town who don’t play by the old rules and I think Lil Kim also gets that as well.
Long story short, either you believe Kim is essentially a hostage in a China-dominated political system, or you don’t. Trump’s acting as if he does.
I love the histrionics of the leftist media “press” about how he is talking about the little lunatic dictator with nuclear weapons.
What do they expect him to do – blast him, insult him, call him out on his record of atrocities and scuttle any hope of getting this guy to stand down?
Of COURSE they do! Because that is how Trump would LOSE the negotiations, lose his stance as a brilliant foreign policy negotiator, and thus his 2020 chances.
Transparent. And so predictable. Read Unfreedom of the Press. Very revealing about the media, the history of the press from our country’s founding to today, and death of the so-called 4th Estate in the USA.
China knows that they don’t have the cards to play poker against Trump directly. They have issued many threats in response to the tariffs and although our markets have been volatile, it hasn’t been very effective in bludgeoning Trump to relent. So now they are back to distraction by proxy.
I think this is more of a response to the new US-Mexico “border agreement” which I suspect has less to do with immigration than with back door China dumping.
China is worried as their economy decays and the peasants grow more restless. Probably trying to buy time hoping our 5th column of communists remove Trump. Chinese money is the only real reason Biden appears strong in the polls.
My hogwash antennae have been on overdrive for a couple of decades now. (This is more of a reflection of my age, as opposed to the progressive degeneration of the media.) I feel sorry for those who still haven’t figured out that EVERYONE has an agenda.
…”[W]hen reporting on North Korea, it is critical for reporters to warn their readers about the impossibility of checking facts, and also to include expert commentary, for North Korea watchers have a nose for what is credible and what is not.
Rubbish. It’s critical for anyone who takes the job of “reporter” seriously to stop reporting totally random crap which is not subject to even the most superficial verification. A load of crap accompanied by a warning that it’s a load of crap . . . is itself a load of crap. And we get enough of that already from
reporterspress propagandists.Just picture anything, anything at all, read to you by some guy on TV. Now picture that guy being Rachel Maddow. Why are you even listening to this drivel? She’s getting paid to deliver it, but you’re not getting paid to sit there and soak it up.