He spent 3 years as a forward observer for artillery. He says withdrawing the GPs don't just get rid of guards, but also forward observers at the GPs. Thus, he says, it'll render artillery further back useless. https://t.co/y2qtqUDsiI
I interrupt your exuberance to remind you that North Korea is not denuclearizing, is more oppressive & totalitarian than ever & has an unbroken history of international proliferation, crime, blackmail & terrorism. This is not leading to a lasting peace. It rhymes with 1938.
Some valid points are raised in the below piece. Reminds me of the adage of the risks of sleeping with dogs. But Moon seems to be willing to tolerate a few fleas in his quest for a more sustainable peace and reduction in conflict. https://t.co/7OTj3ugTjf
Quasi-hostages, dragooned into the dreaded anti-capitalist dictatorship by their own so-called liberal former human rights lawyer sovereign. Do those billionaires strike you as happy campers? https://t.co/B9oUyyKatg
It figures that the Dokdo issue would some how come up during the recent Inter-Korean Summit:
Choi turned a set of cards into a large card that showed the Unification Flag. Korea Times file
Magician Choi Hyun-woo, who went to Pyongyang as part of the South Korean delegation for the three-day inter-Korean summit, presented a magic show to the leaders of the two Koreas Tuesday night at Mokran (Magnolia) House.
“I was nervous at the moment,” The Kyunghyang Shinmun quoted Choi as saying. He said he was bit worried as he heard North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likes magic and he did not want to let him down.
During dinner on Tuesday, Choi performed card tricks that engaged the leaders and their wives.
“The first theme was telepathy, that is, to communicate telepathically,” Choi said.
For example, if President Moon Jae-in chose a card in his mind, Kim had to guess what card that was.
“It went well with President Moon and Chairman Kim, as well as with the two first ladies who were telepathic with each other,” the magician said.
“At the end, I turned the cards into a large card with a Korean Peninsula flag on it to show a message of going together in harmony. I was surprised when the two leaders pointed out the same thing that Dokdo (the rocky islets in the East Sea) was displayed on the card.” [Korea Times]
The head of state visit, yet no #SouthKorean flag whatsoever. Only flags of #NorthKorea & unification. What does it say about how Kim Jong-un thinks about 1)SK? 2)president Moon Jae-in? What does it say about Moon, who is not only fine with it, but just beaming (in other pics)? pic.twitter.com/b0IsMCnFag
Notice in the below excerpt that the North Koreans at the Pyongyang summit did not agree to what the State Department has issued in their statement:
President Moon greets journalists at the Main Press Center. Joint Press Corps
“We believe a new process which is supported by all the relevant states is unfolding,” senior presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s pledge to take tangible denuclearization measures prompted Washington to immediately extend its hand to Pyongyang for further talks. The invitation comes after weeks of stalled negotiations between the countries.
In the statement, Pompeo stated the U.S. is “prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-North Korea relations.”
It said Pompeo invited North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to New York for a meeting and asked Pyongyang to begin denuclearization talks with its new Special Representative Stephen Biegun in Vienna, as soon as circumstances allow.
“This will mark the beginning of negotiations to transform U.S.-North Korea relations through the process of rapid denuclearization of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021, as committed to by Chairman Kim, and to construct a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.
The location for the proposed U.S. talks with North Korea is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“We believe the symbolic meaning of the location being where the IAEA is headquartered was considered,” South Korea’s nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon told reporters at the press center for the inter-Korean summit in Seoul.
Meanwhile, some terms in the U.S. statement did not match the joint statement from the Pyongyang summit such as the “permanent dismantlement of all facilities at Yongbyon in the presence of U.S. and IAEA inspectors.”
The statement did not refer to the “reciprocal measure” the North Korea stated the U.S. needed to take before it would permanently shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility, as stated in the inter-Korean agreement. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this summit really did not do anything to bring North Korea closer to real denuclearization instead it just advanced the Kim regime’s “pretend denuclearization” initiative.
President Moon has returned to South Korea after a photo shoot with Kim Jong-un on North Korea’s highest mountain, Mt. Paekdu:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2nd from R) and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, (R) pose for a photo with their North Korean counterparts Kim Jong-il and Ri Sol-ju during their joint trip to Mount Paekdu in North Korea on Sept. 20, 2018. (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap
South Korean President Moon Jae-in returned home Thursday after a three-day trip to North Korea for his third summit with leader Kim Jong-un.
Moon arrived at Seoul Air Base at 5:36 p.m., about two hours after his flight left North Korea’s Samjiyon airport near Mount Paekdu.
His departure from the North came after a joint trip with Kim to Mount Paekdu that highlighted the success of their bilateral summit in Pyongyang. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it is expected that President Moon will next turn his attention on President Trump to get him to drop sanctions in return for North Korea’s “Pretend Denuclearization“.
This looks like more of the same from North Korea where they do things that are easily reversible to get major concessions from the US:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pose for photographs during a signing ceremony after their summit at Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang on Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to halt all military acts that could spark conflict along the border, promising to end confrontational relations and the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula.
The two leaders on Wednesday also reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear free Korean peninsula with North Korean leader Kim promising to invite foreign experts to verify the dismantling of a long-range missile engine testing site. He also offered to shut down the country’s most important nuclear facility – if the United States offers “corresponding measures” in return.
“The South and North agreed to work toward terminating any chance of war and improving the hostile relationship [between the two militaries] in every corner of the Korean Peninsula beyond the demilitarized zone,” read an agreement signed by Moon and Kim, called the Pyongyang Declaration, after a second round of summit talks in Pyongyang. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but notice there is nothing agreed upon about removing the nuclear material and weapons the North Koreans have already stockpiled. They are just offering to have international inspectors monitor the disassembling of a missile engine test site and shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear facility. The missile test site can be reconstructed later and the regime may have enough confidence in their rocket engines to not need the site anymore anyway. The Yongbyon nuclear facility can be restarted up at a time of the Kim regime’s choosing long after sanctions have been dropped and they received the infusion of cash and aid from the Moon administration. This is the “pretend denuclearization“.
The timing of this summit shows that Moon and Kim are likely betting that the Trump administration will want a supposed foreign policy victory before the US mid-term elections. I would not be surprised if they do some kind of spectacle of blowing up a launch pad or some other site to further entice the Trump administration to agree to their “pretend denuclearization” strategy.
If the Moon administration gets its way, this magician will not need to turn North Korean currency into US dollars, it will be brought across the border in large quantities for Kim Jong-un:
President Moon Jae-in helps magician Choi Hyun-woo at a daycare center in Seoul in January. Korea Times file
South Korean magician Choi Hyun-woo is expected to perform in front of the leaders of the two Koreas, with Cheong Wa-dae announcing on Monday that Choi was in the South’s delegation.
“I am not sure about the specifics (where and when I am going to present my show), as the news came as surprise,” Choi told CBS radio, Tuesday morning just before leaving for Pyongyang.
He said he planned to engage North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in his show.
“I cannot reveal which magic performances I’m going to present at the show, but I’m planning to create scenes that I hope show the ‘miracle of inter-Korean unity,'” he said.
He was not sure whether he would do a similar trick to one performed by a North Korean magician ― turning North Korean currency into a U.S. dollar. [Korea Times]
