Thursday 14 June 2018

About that 12 June 2018 North Korea-United States summit when a arrant fool and a murderous dictator met....


U.S. President Donald J. Trump and the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un met for a one day summit in Singapore on 12 June 2018.

 There was little doubt that the world was willing to support this move.

 The Guardian, 12-13 June 2018:

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has welcomed the summit as an important first step and urged both sides to compromise.

A statement issued by his office said: “The Secretary-General welcomes the holding of the Summit between the leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States as an important milestone in the advancement of sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.”

“As the Secretary-General noted in letters to both leaders before the Summit, the road ahead requires cooperation, compromise and a common cause. Implementing today’s and previous agreements reached, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions, will require patience and support from the global community. 

The Secretary-General urges all concerned parties to seize this momentous opportunity and reiterates his readiness to fully support the ongoing process.”

When the summit ended this joint statement was released to the media on 12 June 2018:

Joint statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S. - DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Convinced that the establishment of new U.S. - DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un state the following:

The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S. - DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

The United States and the DPRK will will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Having acknowledged that the U.S. - DPRK summit - the first in history - was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tension and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future. President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the U.S. - DPRK summit.

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S. - DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the World.

Then journalists started to report on what Trump was actually saying, which raised doubts about his negotiating ability and whether he could stay on course. 


At his post-summit press conference Trump keep stating that he ran out of time to lock-in detail and confirm any sort of timeline for undertakings in the statement.

 He reverted to distortion of known fact when discussing denuclearisation, such as the destruction of the North Korean nuclear/missile test site by a rapid series of underground earthquakes:

“Because there’s no time. I’m here one day. We’re together for many hours intensively. The process will take place. I would be surprised, Mike, if they have not started already. They have started. They blew up their sites. They blew up their testing site…”

 Of Kim Jong-un Trump states; "He is very smart" and “He’s got a very good personality, he’s funny, and he’s very, very smart….He’s a great negotiator, and he’s a very strategic kind of a guy…I think at the right time, he’ll absolutely be coming to the White House” as well as “I do trust him, yeah. … He trusts me, I believe, I really do.”

The Washington Post observed on 12 June 2018:

A joint statement said Mr. Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” That language is actually weaker and less specific than what Pyongyang offered in several previous agreements — which it then flouted. North Korea’s definition of denuclearization, as laid out in numerous previous talks with U.S. officials, envisions a far-reaching U.S. strategic retreat, including the removal of the American defense umbrella from both South Korea and Japan. There was no mention in the statement of U.S. terms for disarmament: not a word about verification, or irreversibility, or timelines.

While Associated Press Pyongyang bureau chief Eric Talmadge had this to say on 13 June 2018:

All North Korean leader Kim Jong Un really needed from his unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday was to keep his nuclear arsenal intact for the time being and get a decent handshake photo to show he has truly arrived on the world stage.

To probably even his own surprise, he got that and a whole lot more.

While offering no solid promises to abandon his hard-won nuclear arsenal any time soon, Kim got to stand as an equal with the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, received indications that the future of joint U.S.-South Korea military maneuvers may be in doubt and was showered with effusive praise from a president who just last year derided him as “little rocket man.”

If he was forced to negotiate by U.S. pressure, it certainly wasn’t obvious. And if any skeptics of the diplomatic campaign he launched with his neighbors early this year remain inside his regime back home, the summit went a long way toward sidelining them even further.

All of this from a 34-year-old leader who was widely written off as too young and too inexperienced to last very long when he assumed power after his enigmatic father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011....

 On denuclearization, the key issue of the summit, Kim appears to have held astonishingly firm. Or perhaps he just wasn’t pushed very hard.

Though the leaders mentioned in a joint statement the need for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the wording is ominously vague and, it could be argued, doesn’t go any further than the North’s previous promises. Whether Trump’s claim that Kim is devoted to the process remains to be seen.

And, it’s safe to assume, that is just fine with Kim.

He got other gifts from Trump as well…..

Meanwhile the odd political meme popped up and cartoons began to appear poking fun at Trump's claims.




Meme found at Twitter, cartoons by Sean Leahy, Cathy Wilcox and Matt Golding.

Posted by clarencegirl at 00:15
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