Tag Archives: North Korean nukes

International news

What about those nuke sites, Mr. President?

The question of the day for Donald John Trump Sr. is this: Do you still believe Kim Jong Un is to be trusted after he promised to “work toward” ending his nuclear weapons ambitions?

Those darn satellite surveillance pictures generally don’t lie. They are revealing that the North Koreans are accelerating their nuclear weapons development, not scaling them back as Kim supposedly promised when he and Trump met in Singapore.

Trump came out of that meeting singing the praises of the guy he once disparaged as Little Rocket Man. He sounded so trusting of the guy, kind of like the way he sounds when talking about Russian strongman/president Vladimir Putin.

One doesn’t “make America great again” by being made to look like a fool on the world stage, Mr. President.

International news

Kim might be lying about nukes? No-o-o!

News reports of the past day or two tell us that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has been, um, lying about his pledge to work toward getting rid of his nuclear arsenal.

Donald J. Trump had that meeting with Kim this past month and praised the former Little Rocket Man with heaping praise about his honesty, trustworthiness and commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Now there’s possible word that Kim has been accelerating nuclear testing at secret sites. He isn’t winding ’em down!

Could it be that Little Rocket Man has taken POTUS for a joy ride aboard a nuclear-armed clown car?

Hey, I’m not making light of this. The president’s assurances about Kim’s commitment to peace needed a lot more “extreme vetting” before he offered them to the rest of the world.

Scary.

International news

It’s only a beginning, however …

Well, so far so good. Maybe. Possibly. We can hold our breath now.

Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong Un — the leaders of two enemy nations — have met, shaken hands and have signed an agreement that commits North Korea to reaching a peace agreement on the Korean Peninsula.

That means eventual “denuclearization.” It means an end to “war games” with U.S. and South Korean forces practicing ways they can fend off a potential attack from the North; the president called the exercises “provocative.”

Where in the name of world peace to we go from here?

Perhaps the bigger question is whether we can trust the North Korean dictator — who’s killed dissenters by the thousands and ordered the murder of members of his own family — to keep his word.

The president, in an extraordinary — and frankly, incredulous — about-face, has called Kim an “honorable” man. He said his people “love” him. Really, Mr. President? They love this guy?

President Reagan used to invoke a Russian saying that translated loosely means “trust, but verify.” I am waiting for signs that our side has instituted any verification mechanisms to validate the pledges that Kim has made to Donald Trump.

Maybe they’re in there, somewhere, hidden from public view.

Then again, maybe the president of the United States has been taken for a ride.

Still, this first-ever meeting between a U.S. president and a North Korean despot holds enormous promise.

Or … it might all explode.

Now we wait.

International news

Trump-Kim summit back on … for now?

Just when you thought Donald J. Trump had tossed aside a chance to make peace with a decades-long enemy, well, he announced that he now plans to take that chance after all.

The president today announced that his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is back on. It’s set for June 12 in Singapore.

The president made quite a show of his decision to cancel the meeting after Kim said some angry things about the United States. I thought the summit was a goner. It bummed me out.

It’s back on. Trump had a meeting today at the White House with the No. 2 man in North Korea, Kim Jong Un’s right-hand guy. He delivered a note from Kim. Trump, curiously, then admitted he didn’t read Kim’s letter before agreeing to meet with him later this month.

Eh? Huh? What?

Well, he’s going to fly to Singapore for what he now hints might be the first of a series of meetings with North Korea. The goal is to get Kim to “denuclearize,” meaning to get rid of the nukes in his arsenal. Plus, there might be an actual peace treaty on the table, given that the Korean War shooting ended in 1953 only because of a ceasefire that both sides signed; there is no peace treaty, meaning that North and South Korea — and the United States — are technically in a state of war.

Can we trust Kim Jong Un? No. We cannot. However, can we trust our own president to carry these noble goals across the finish line? Sadly, no on that one, too.

However, let us hope for the best once these two mercurial leaders shake hands and start talking to each other.

International news

‘Great progress’ in advance of summit?

What in the world are we to conclude about this stunning bit of news?

CIA Director Mike Pompeo — who has been nominated to become the next secretary of state — visited North Korea around Easter weekend, where he met with Kim Jong Un.

Pompeo returned from that meeting under the cover of secrecy.

Then we hear today that North Korea has suspended its missile and nuclear tests and has announced plans to close a nuclear test site.

Donald Trump fired off this tweet in response to the announcement from the reclusive North Korean regime:

North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for North Korea and the World – big progress! Look forward to our Summit.

The president’s tweet didn’t connect the two events — Pompeo’s secret meeting and the announcement — but Pyongyang’s statement of intent does lend a fresh air of promise to the upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim at a site to be determined.

If the world is able to trust the mercurial Kim Jong Un to keep his word about the suspension of missile tests and the closing of a nuclear test site, then the planned summit could produce a “fruitful” outcome, to which the president alluded while declaring that could walk away from a meeting if it leads down a dead end.

I’m more than willing to link the Pompeo visit with what Kim Jong Un’s government has just announced. If it proves to be a valid link, then we might be on the verge of some historic developments on the Korean Peninsula.

Excellent! Yes?

military news

Doubling down on ‘fire and fury’? What the … ?

Donald J. Trump says his “fire and fury” riff the other day didn’t go far enough.

If he had to do it over, the president said he would have spoken even more aggressively against the North Korean regime.

What? Eh? Are you serious, Mr. President?

Trump is vacationing in New Jersey. This past week, he held a “media opportunity” in which he declared that if North Korean dictator/goofball Kim Jong Un kept up with the “threats” against the United States, he would be met with “fire and fury the likes of which the world has never known.”

Trump improvised that comment. It’s been seen throughout the political world in this country and abroad as an unnecessary provocation. The North Koreans responded by offering a specific threat to launch a nuclear-armed missile at Guam, the U.S. island territory within range of a missile launched by North Korea.

Why Guam? It’s home to a significant military presence. The North Koreans surely understand what would occur if they were to launch a missile. In case they don’t, I’ll explain right here: They would be wiped off the face of the planet.

Do they want that? The obvious answer would be a resounding no.

I believe the obvious answer would be a resounding no.

Why, then, does the president of the United States insist on ratcheting up the rhetoric against North Korea?

The world is a jittery place right now. We can “thank” the president of the United States for adding to our worldwide fear.