Bolton didn't help, but the blame needs to fall squarely on Trump's shoulders. He announced the meeting with Kim 45 minutes after hearing the offer. No time for proper discussion with advisers about feasibility. Then he started going on about denuclearisation, something that was never going to wash with North Korea.
It was a **** up from the off.
0 Replies
edgarblythe
3
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Thu 24 May, 2018 12:29 pm
My expectations were not high, but as I mentioned on a different thread a while back, I would have preferred a successful resolution to blustering and possible war.
0 Replies
oralloy
-3
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Thu 24 May, 2018 02:49 pm
@Lash,
Lash wrote:
******* Bolton. Meeting cancelled. It’s also possible Trump’s trade bravado led China to use their influence to torpedo the NK talks.
It was a great opportunity and it is currently needlessly botched.
Stupid ******* Bolton.
Libya policy.
North Korea's aggression is hardly Mr. Bolton's fault.
If Bolton had kept his dumbass mouth shut on Sunday news shows about how our government was using the Libyan model, this weirdness wouldn’t have happened.
well we agree on this at least. Bolt-on was the jamoke who coached Powell to give that totally stupid talk about Iraq having chemical weapons as the justification for attack and regime change.
We were suckered in an it turned out that several high-class spotters were tossed under the bus (like Scott Ritter).
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oralloy
-2
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Thu 24 May, 2018 06:45 pm
@Lash,
Lash wrote:
If Bolton had kept his dumbass mouth shut on Sunday news shows about how our government was using the Libyan model, this weirdness wouldn’t have happened.
That isn't true. Bolton had nothing to do with this. This happened because North Korea never intended to make peace.
I’ve been spending the last several days in Seoul, South Korea, at the invitation of the government’s major economic think tank.
When I arrived here Tuesday, most people I talked with were excited about the possibility of reconciliation with the North. Today, the mood is bleak. Trump's decision to pull out of the upcoming talks with Kim Jung Un seems to have caught everyone by surprise.
Several officials blame John Bolton, Trump’s new national security advisor. "Kim has long hated Bolton,” one official told me, referring to a speech Bolton gave in 2003, when he was the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, in which he personally attacked Kim Jong Il (Kim Jong Un’s father), calling his rule a “hellish nightmare.”
It also didn’t help that just before becoming Trump’s national security advisor, Bolton published an essay entitled “The Legal Case for Striking North Korea First.”
Nor did it help that for the last several weeks Bolton has been talking up the “the Libyan model," referring to a deal he helped design in 2003 in which Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi turned over a beginning nuclear program. “Bolton knew the Libya example would infuriate Kim,” another official told me. “Kim thinks that if North Koreans rose to overthrow him, as Libyan rebels did against Qaddafi in 2011, Bolton and Trump would be delighted to help them.” The official was gloomy. “Bolton never wanted a deal with Kim. By making Bolton his national security advisor, Trump probably didn’t, either.”
One final thought from my few days here in South Korea. In the drama that’s unfolding, we hear a lot about Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. But the real hero of this story -- if it ever leads to a lasting peace -- is South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in. Over the years, I have come across many presidents and prime ministers, and have worked with many of their governments. But rarely if ever have I witnessed someone as talented, intelligent, humble, and progressive as President Moon. He also has a superb administration, dedicated to fairness, inclusion, and democracy. At this fragile point in time, when Trump and Kim -- two hot-headed paranoids -- could start a nuclear war, the world is fortunate to have Moon at the helm in South Korea.
0 Replies
rosborne979
4
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Fri 25 May, 2018 11:14 am
@oralloy,
oralloy wrote:
This happened because North Korea never intended to make peace.
People don't like to hear it, but that is probably the case. North Korea has a long history of big talk and little action when it comes to nuclear disarmament, and this round is probably no different than the others.
At the moment, North Korea's nuclear test site is collapsing, so it benefits them to act as though they are dismantling things rather than admit that it's just falling apart. So, they play it up for the world media, garner a little bit of good-will and hope in people's minds, then they just make up some excuse to back out and blame it on the other side. It's all rather transparent but it still seems to work.
Most US Presidents don't like to play that game because it plays more to North Korea's benefit and it ends up being a waste of time. The flip side of course it that if you don't try you never know. So I think Trump deserves a bit of leeway on this especially given that nobody seems to have any better ideas.
Both of these guys are master manipulators of the media, and world opinion is on-the-table in these negotiations, so a lot of everything we see is just showmanship.
The smart money is on "nothing will change". But sometimes long shots win. It's just rare.
Meanwhile the real maneuvering is going on behind the scenes in China.
0 Replies
edgarblythe
2
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Fri 25 May, 2018 12:42 pm
From Al Jazeera
'Dial back'
Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said Trump's latest comments showed that there was "a sense of ... re-engagement" between the two sides.
Although Trump suggested that the summit could even take place on June 12, as originally planned, White House officials downplayed that prospect saying a meeting so soon seemed unlikely, said Halkett.
Disappointment in South Korea as Trump nixes summit with Kim
She added, however, that White House staff were keen to underscore that their focus was not on the date of the summit but achieving denuclearisation.
"Many people said that Trump, maybe because of his lack of political expertise, was a bit naive in how these things work, quickly accepting the invitation without even consulting staff in the first place," said Halkett.
"Now he may have some time to dial back, work incrementally to set up this in a more traditional fashion so that the conversation - if and when it does take place - can be productive."
Trump-Kim meeting 'indispensable'
Earlier, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung Gyon said that Seoul was still ready to implement an agreement on denuclearisation reached between the leaders of the two Koreas in April.
"Our government will do its part in carrying out the Panmunjom Declaration," Cho told reporters, according to the news agency Yonhap.
Kim and Moon Jae In issued the declaration following their April 27 meeting at the border between the two countries.
Separately, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday that Tokyo was disappointed by the cancellation of the summit, saying it was necessary to make progress.
"In the future we need such a meeting - it is indispensable to resolve the problems which have accumulated," said Abe, who is in Russia's second city of St Petersburg attending an annual economic forum.
0 Replies
izzythepush
1
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Sat 26 May, 2018 02:51 am
Quote:
US President Donald Trump says "very productive talks" have been held with North Korea on reinstating the summit with leader Kim Jong-un.
In a tweet, Mr Trump said the meeting could still take place on 12 June in Singapore "and if necessary will be extended beyond that date".
He cancelled the summit on Thursday, blaming the North's "open hostility".
But North Korea later appeared conciliatory, saying it was willing to talk "at any time in any form".
Shortly before Mr Trump's tweet, the South Korean presidency said it was thankful that the "summit embers are not put out and it is coming back to life".
Whether or not the talks will take place in just over two weeks' time is, frankly, anyone's guess, the BBC's David Willis reports from Washington.
Summit meetings of this kind usually involve months of detailed planning and some analysts have expressed disquiet that private discussion of policy differences appears to have been replaced by "diplomacy by tweet", our correspondent adds.
The leaders of North and South Korea have met in the demilitarised border area between the two countries.
The meeting is only the second between South Korea's Moon Jae-in and the North's Kim Jong-un.
It comes as the two sides continue efforts to put a historic US-North Korea summit back on track.
On Thursday US President Donald Trump cancelled the summit, scheduled for 12 June, but later suggested it might still go ahead.
The latest talks were held on the northern side of the Panmunjom truce village, between 15:00 and 17:00 local time (06:00 and 08:00 GMT), Mr Moon's office said.
"Both leaders exchanged opinions... for the successful holding of the North Korea-US Summit," it added, saying that Mr Moon will announce the outcome of the talks on Sunday morning.
