Kim Jong-un of North Korea, left, and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone last month.CreditPool photo
New York Times: North Korea Revives an Old Tactic in Threat to Cancel Talks
SEOUL, South Korea — After presenting himself as a statesman, and changing his role from tyrant to moderate on the world stage, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, has revealed his bottom line: He will not give up his nuclear weapons as President Trump has demanded.
In warning on Wednesday that Mr. Kim could withdraw from his planned June 12 summit meeting with Mr. Trump in Singapore, Pyongyang demanded that Washington remove military threats against North Korea, and it suspended talks with South Korea over its joint military exercises with the United States. The abrupt change from the North, which for months had been calling for dialogue, threatened to dash hopes for a breakthrough in the tensions that pushed the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war last year.
Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said North Korea had begun to fear looking weak by making unilateral concessions, like its moratorium on missile tests and its decision to shut down its nuclear test site. He noted that the United States, rather than offering concessions of its own, has vowed only to keep up its maximum pressure on the North if it fails to quickly denuclearize.
“The last thing Kim Jong-un can afford is to look like he is surrendering his nuclear weapons,” Mr. Koh said.
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WNU Editor: A lot of work has already been done between North and South Korea on what needs to be done. Everyone knows everyone's positions on the key issues .... and more to the point .... an understanding on where this needs to eventually end up .... demilitarization (i.e. the elimination of nuclear weapons and missiles) and a lessening of tensions on the the Korean border, coupled with a roadmap for reconciliation and (way in the future) unification. In return ... both South Korea and the U.S. have promised enormous economic aid and business investments coupled with security guarantees should North Korea comply. So why the sudden move from North Korea to put the talks and all the progress that has been made into doubt .... as I said .... there is probably more happening in North Korea than what we know, and not necessarily a negotiating tactic.
9 comments:
Last chance to show he's in charge. He'll go forward with meeting.
His test site is still a mess.
Sounds like Kim still has adversaries. And, I have to imagine that a vague idea of immense changes to the status quo would leave many, who are relatively well off at the moment, in a state of great anxiety and reluctance to move forward.
Kim has made Trump appear as the buffoon that he is. The administration is full of amateurs at best, no one with even a cursory knowledge of the Korean situation thought much would come of this. And our future Noble prize winner went for the bait. Kim has also succeeded in driving a wedge in between the south and the US.
Anon,
I agree. People who have a good life do not want to see it jeopardized. I saw this happened in the Soviet Union before it broke up, and I sense the same thing is happening in North Korea. This has nothing to do with South Korea, the U.S., or even China. This has to do with what is happening in North Korea.
Anon & WNU,
I agree. I couldn't have put this any better myself. Frankly I am surprised it took this long for this to manifest itself. I would add to this that NK likely has many close friends and business partners in high places in both China and Russia who are not going to want to see changes. This is something we will have to work through. I do think many perhaps even including myself got to excited to quickly especially knowing how desperately America needs peace. As I have stated elsewhere, if we can get back to a situation where tensions are high as they have been for decades but war is not necessarily imminent this is probably something that regrettably we could live with. If it truly has nothing to do with what is happening in SK, the US, or China as I suspect you are correct, then we will get to peace eventually but perhaps not as quickly as we would have hoped.
Jason,
I am not sure I agree with you on the Trump as "buffoon" part. So far much has been achieved even if there are some major steps backward right now nothing the US hasn't really given up anything yet. At some point, the US will have to make some concessions. So far none have really been made that I can tell.
As for the "wedge" between SK and the US. It's always been there. After all 33% of SK military officers view the US as the main enemy. I really don't see anything different.
As for the Nobel Prize, no one has really been talking about it. Perhaps some in the main stream media have been talking about why he should not get it. Where it has been mentioned is mostly to suggest it is to early even consider such things. As for taking "bait," we need peace. Why not try and negotiate, especially when we haven't given up anything yet. At some point we will have to give something up.
If this process fails entirely, SK can nuclear arm themselves, we should support it, this would bolster SK's defense, very likely strengthen the alliance, and take some of the pressure off of the US military. IF SK is unwilling to do this, cut them loose entirely and negotiate a separate agreement with NK ending our conflict with them. Once freed from the SK yoke our options become much better. I'm NOT suggesting abandoning SK is the option to pursue at this time.
I think we all knew it was a dog and pony show. You gotta try though. The only thing that will change NK is its people and sadly I dont see that happening.
Obama was the buffoon who got manipulated by Kim and led us to this point.
Moon was the chump here not trump.
deflection
They read Trump’s book “Art of the Deal”.
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