Here is another example of a forum being used to pressure the US to drop sanctions against North Korea:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) shakes hands with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho at a photo session of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore on Aug. 4, 2018. (Yonhap)
The top diplomats of the two Koreas and regional powers engaged in a flurry of diplomatic talks over the past few days in Singapore, although no breakthroughs were made toward Pyongyang’s denuclearization and the proclamation to formally end the Korean War.
This year’s ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) followed two inter-Korean summits at the Panmunjom truce village in spring and the unprecedented North Korea-U.S. summit in this city-state in June.
It was a sort of prelude to the U.N. General Assembly to be held in New York next month.
The gathering was widely expected to help maintain the momentum for constructive dialogue amid some signs of an impasse in the Korea peace process.
The U.S. is pressing the North to take concrete denuclearization steps, beyond a show of dismantling nuclear and missile testing sites in the absence of international experts.
The North says it has done a lot, and the Trump administration should reciprocate. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but wouldn’t it be great if President Trump responded to criticisms of reciprocating Pyongyang’s so called “good-will” gestures by saying that the US is showing good-will by not bombing them?
