Finian Cunningham -- Why Trump is Winding Up Tensions with North Korea

Why Trump is Winding Up Tensions with North Korea

Finian Cunningham

December 25, 2019

© Photo: Flickr / whitehouse

After 18 months of on-off diplomacy with North Korea, the Trump administration seems determined now to jettison the fragile talk about peace, reverting to its earlier campaign of “maximum pressure” and hostility. It’s a retrograde move risking a disastrous war.

In a visit to China this week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese leader Xi Jinping both urged for greater momentum in the diplomatic process with North Korea, saying that renewed tensions benefit no-one. The two leaders may need to revise that assertion. Tensions greatly benefit someone – Washington.

Why Trump is winding up tensions again with Pyongyang appears to involve a two-fold calculation. It gives Washington greater leverage to extort more money from South Korea for the presence of US military forces on its territory; secondly, the Trump administration can use the tensions as cover for increasing its regional forces aimed at confronting China.

Can Kim trust Trump?

Can Kim trust Trump?

All it would take would be some pretext alleging that Pyongyang is up to no good, and suddenly the deal could be off with the articulation of Trump’s pen

by FRANK SELLERSJune 13, 2018, 06:40

US President Donald J. Trump actually followed through on his meeting with Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite the on again off again track record of talks between the two leaders. Not only that, he actually didn’t just get up and walk out, as he had threatened to do, if his gut didn’t signal to him that the discussions were going to bear fruit. But as we know, Trump loves the shock and awe factor, and that’s part of how he operates. He likes to create conditions of suspense so that everyone sits on the edge of their seats wondering what he’s going to do, so that whatever he does is like a bolt from the blue. And that’s sort of what happened here. But the story hasn’t concluded yet. The meetings were surprising in that they occurred, in and of themselves, but the outcome isn’t as much surprising, largely because there wasn’t a whole lot of room for legitimate and meaningful progress towards any actual goals being accomplished on such an initial meeting.

When the French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to DC to butter up Trump in an effort to secure the preservation of the nuclear non proliferation deal with Iran, not much was accomplished, except for the usual ‘maybe, maybe not’ routine, although it’s not as though, even if Trump were indeed willing at some point to take that path, that Trump would have actually committed to sticking with the deal because of the relations between the two leaders, which were apparently improved considerably by their meetings, so that he would sign on to something meaningful in renewing the agreement. Although in the case of North Korea here, we do at least have Trump’s signature on a statement of intent to push forward with negotiations to iron out a peace agreement, an apparent end to America’s provocative activities on the peninsula, and the eventual full denuclearization of the North Korean regime.

Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

by Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 12 JUNE 2018 

FRANÇAIS 

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Russia’s key role in bringing North and South Korea together (Video)

Alexander Mercouris in London (E4): Why Lavrov went to North Korea to meet with Kim.

by 

ALEX CHRISTOFOROU

June 4, 2018, 09:32

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang this past Thursday.

Lavrov’s visit comes as Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington are preparing a historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un on June 12th.

Russia’s role in brokering the summit between the US and North Korea has been played down, but make no mistake, Russia has (and is developing) key security, energy and infrastructure project on the Korean peninsula.

Alexander Mercouris in London (E4) explains why Lavrov went to North Korea to meet with Kim.

Here is a summary of what happened, via DW (http://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-russian-foreign-minister-sergey-lavrov-meets-kim-jong-un/a-44016043)…

• Lavrov invited the North Korean leader to visit Russia.
• He told Kim that Moscow supported peace and progress on the Korean peninsula and highly valued a declaration signed by Pyongyang and Seoul.
• Earlier, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho and others at the Supreme People’s Assembly building in the North Korean capital.
• Lavrov and his deputy Igor Morgulov paid their respects at a monument to Soviet soldiers in Pyongyang’s Moranbong Park.
• The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier Lavrov and Ri were expected to discuss “vital issues of bilateral relations and key international and regional issues.”

MFA Russia 

✔@mfa_russia

Sergey #Lavrov was greeted by the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of DPRK Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang

8:48 AM - May 31, 2018

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Qingdao SCO Summit: “Secret Meeting” between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un?

Qingdao SCO Summit: “Secret Meeting” between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, May 31, 2018

Region: Asia

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold its 18th annual summit meeting in Qingdao, Shandong Province on June 9-10, barely a few days before the (scheduled) Kim-Trump Summit in Singapore on June 12-14. The SCO meetings will be chaired by China’s President Xi-Jingping.  

There are unconfirmed reports that Kim Jong-un will be invited and that “secret meeting” between Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin, is scheduled to take place in Qingdao on June 9, “on the margin”of the official SCO meeting. At the time of writing the holding of the Singapore Summit is still unconfirmed and could be cancelled by either side.

In all likelihood, the Korean crisis will be on the agenda of the SCO meeting which regroups representatives from SCO member states including China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan as well as observers from Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.

Were Kim to attend the SCO venue, this would be his third meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping in 2018.

It should be mentioned that China was a signatory of the 1953 armistice agreement (U.S., DPRK, China’s Volunteer Army). Legally this 1953 agreement cannot be rescinded without China’s participation in the Korea-US peace process.

An unconfirmed report suggests that Kim Jong-un may also “make a guest appearance” at the SCO meetings:

The China Times reports that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a statement about the upcoming SCO Summit, declaring that a “Declaration of Qingdao” is expected to be signed at the meeting, along with 10 other agreements on cooperation in fields of security, the economy, and culture. See Taiwan Times report,

China-DPRK Relations: Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping Meet in Dalian

The CIA’s Plan to Assassinate Kim Jong-un, History of CIA Sponsored Assassinations

The CIA’s Plan to Assassinate Kim Jong-un, History of CIA Sponsored Assassinations

By Vladimir Platov

Global Research, May 26, 2018

New Eastern Outlook 14 January 2018

Region: USA

Theme: Law and Justice, Media Disinformation

The history of the US Central Intelligence Agency is replete with numerous examples of political assassinations, not only in the US, but also of leaders of countries Washington disagrees with. So today, the CIA has actively begun developing various methods for the deliberate elimination of the US’s newest political opponent,

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, involving not only special forces in this task, but also the special services of countries that cooperate closely with the CIA.

Evidence of this, in particular, can be found in the  the country’s defense budget for 2018, officially laid out by the South Korean government; the cost of eliminating North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. These funds will be spent on training and equipping a special “decapitation unit” dedicated to the North Korean leadership, the creation of which became known on December 1. The squad will include about one thousand commandos, whose task in the event of a war will be to find and kill Kim Jong-un and other top leaders of the neighboring state.

As a source in the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea told the newspaper Korea Herald, the squad’s special equipment will include drones, suicide bombers, reconnaissance drones and even heavy grenade launchers. The structure and training plans of the squad are classified, but according to the information of the South Korean media, the soldiers of the new squad will train according to methodology used by the US special purpose team SEAL Team Six, which assassinated Osama bin Laden.

At the same time, it should be remembered that an attempt to create a special squad in South Korea in 1968 with similar goals ended in tragedy. At the time, 31 South Korean criminals were promised a pardon if the squad they formed killed Kim Il-sung. The group underwent intensive training, during which three people were killed, and in the end they were sent on rubber boats to the DPRK, but halfway were recalled. The prisoners were not released, the exhausting training continued, and the date of the new operation was set. In 1971, members of the squad rebelled, killed their instructors, tried to get to Seoul and, when they were blocked by the army, blew themselves up with grenades. The four survivors were later executed. In 2003 the South Korean film “Silmido” was made about this tragic episode.

in 

BREAKING: Donald Trump CANCELS June summit with Kim Jong-un

The White House twitter account released a formal letter from the US president to the North Korean leader, calling off the June 12th meeting

by 

RICKY TWISDALE

May 24, 2018, 17:40

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US President Donald Trump has just announced that he will not hold a long planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The meeting was scheduled to take place on June 12th in Singapore. The cancellation follows more than a week of escalating verbal attacks between American and North Korean officials.

The White House twitter account released this letter from President Trump to Chairman Kim:

View image on Twitter

The White House

✔@WhiteHouse

A letter from the President to Chairman Kim Jong Un: "It is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

2:46 PM - May 24, 2018

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The war of words was seemingly set off when US National Security Advisor John Bolton gave an interview with US media, saying the US planned a “Libya model” for North Korea.