Secretary Pompeo is Reportedly Pursuing a Freeze Deal with North Korea
It looks like the Trump administration is falling for the freeze deal that both the Moon administration and the Chinese have been pushing for:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his administration wants to reduce North Korea’s capacity to build its nuclear and missile development programs and that discussions on that are an “important component” for making sure that both countries deliver on commitments made in Singapore last year.
Joong Ang Ilbo
During an interview with the Sinclair Broadcast Group, transcripts of which were released by the State Department last Friday, Pompeo said that U.S. President Donald Trump has made enormous strides in working with the North to get their commitment to denuclearize and that now was the time “to execute” and “to implement.”
Pompeo didn’t elaborate on how precisely Washington wants to “reduce” the North’s capacity, but the remarks came on the same day The New York Times reported that officials from both countries were currently negotiating a “freeze” of the North’s nuclear fuel and weapons production so that the country’s arsenal doesn’t grow while denuclearization talks drag on.
This could mean that a freeze, which could be interpreted as a short-term goal in getting Pyongyang to denuclearize, would also be discussed when Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un late next month for their second summit. In their first summit last June in Singapore, both leaders agreed to commit “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but very little progress – if any – has been made since.
You can read more at the link, but if they are playing for a freeze deal they could have done this all the way back in 2017 when the Moon administration and just about every North Korea expert was pushing this idea.
A freeze deal falls right in line with North Korea’s “pretend denuclearization” strategy. A freeze deal means that the Kim regime will get concessions from the US for little to nothing in return. The big concession they will likely push is a peace treaty to end the Korean War.
Getting the peace treaty in return for a freeze deal would then allow surrogates to question the continued existence of the US troop presence in South Korea. If there is peace then why are US troops stationed in Korea?
The ultimate goal of the North’s nuclear weapons program is to co-opt the ROK into a confederation on North Korean terms. A freeze deal followed by a peace treaty plays right into the Kim regime’s hands. Additionally the freeze deal for treaty plays into China’s hands who have also long wanted to separate the ROK from the US in a bid to increase their hegemony over the region.
