This is the kind of willful naïveté, the purposeful misrepresentation that drives me up the wall about this year’s detente w/ N Korea. Talk to them, yes; but praising Kim Jong Un? Jesus. Stop.Just stop. This is how Trump got rolled in SG. Read this first: https://t.co/USizTlr1pfhttps://t.co/0III7HLlmW
The Prime Minister may want to ask the people enslaved in the gulags how much Kim Jong-un cares about his people:
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon speaks during a meeting in Nairobi with Korean residents in Kenya on July 19, 2018. (Yonhap)
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Thursday that a series of changes has happened in North Korea and the most important of them is that the country finally has a leader caring for the livelihoods of his people.
Lee made the remark in Nairobi during a meeting with Korean residents in Kenya, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s policy to put a greater emphasis on economic development, and vowing to seize the chance to bring permanent peace to the divided Korean Peninsula. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but do these people actually think that talking nice about Kim Jong-un will make him decide to denuclearize?
It seems to me that the Kim regime is working hard to butter up the US President while playing hardball with his underlings:
President Donald Trump Thursday released a letter from Kim Jong Un, in which the North Korean leader voices confidence in efforts to end their nuclear standoff, while calling on his US counterpart to take “practical actions” to build trust.
“A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea,” Trump tweeted alongside a copy of the letter dated July 6 — the day that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Pyongyang for what turned out to be difficult talks with Kim’s regime.
“Great progress being made!” Trump added in his tweet.
In the letter Kim describes his June 12 summit with Trump in Singapore, and the resulting joint statement agreed by both sides, as the “start of a meaningful journey.”
“I firmly believe that the strong will, sincere efforts and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr. President aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the U.S. will sure surely come to fruition,” Kim writes.
“I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr. President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement,” he adds.
The North Korean leader also voices hope that “the invariable trust and confidence in Your Excellency Mr. President will be further strengthened in the future process of taking practical actions.” [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but my thoughts on this is that the Kim regime as well as the Moon administration in South Korea, both understand that guys like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo have no intention of dropping sanctions until real denuclearization occurs. That is why I believe they have been trying to appeal to President Trump’s ego in attempt to overrule his advisors and drop the sanctions for pretend denuclearization deal.
That is why I believe President Moon has come out and said that President Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and now we have Kim Jong-un appealing to his ego by calling Trump “Your Excellency” repeatedly. Time will tell if their strategy works or not.
Kim Jong-un is a demi-god in North Korea so few would be willing to point out that the seat of his trousers has a big smudge of dirt across the bottom during his recent tour of a textile factory in Sinuiju on the border with China. Or was it intentional to show Kim has worked hard for the people? Kim reportedly upbraided factory workers for poor work performance. This footage is from the North Korean Central TV. Yonhap via Korea Times
North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from R) talks with workers during his visit to the Sinuiju Chemical Fibre Mill in the town bordering China in this clip from the North’s Central TV on July 2, 2018. The country’s media outlets said Kim chastised workers during his visits to plants in the city for not working hard enough. In the case of the mill, Kim “seriously reproved officials for failing to take pains to finish as early as possible the upgrading of the paper manufacturing process,” the report said in English. (Yonhap)
Harry Harris, during his Senate confirmation hearing, talked about bringing #KimJongUn to his senses and not to his knees. Unfortunately, to bring Kim to his senses we have to bring him to his knees.
Legitimizing and praising a dictator does not give us a real and permanent peace. It’s a delusional and fake peace that Trump wants us to believe. We must hold North Korea’s murderous Kim dictator accountable. We must fight for a world where justice… https://t.co/S44Xcp3Jvq
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a banquet in Beijing on June 19, 2018, in this photo carried by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun the following day. (Yonhap)
After opening the article bashing the President Trump for the recent Singapore summit, the article then goes on to explain that the summit was a huge success in the opinion of South Koreans:
In South Korea, however, the prism is different. Discussions center less on Trump’s achievements or lack of them, or his failures to live up to his own word, and more on the possibilities his summit opened up — in particular his new relationship with Kim. Which is why they welcome phone calls between the pair.
Singapore was not a failure for many in South Korea, but an opportunity.
According to a Gallup survey of more than 1,000 people two days after the summit, two thirds of the population said they think the Kim/Trump meeting was a success. Only one in 10 thought it a failure. [CNN]
