Kim Jong Un continuing to play to the vanity of Donald Trump?

While Kim plays to Trump’s ego, he builds his nuclear arsenal, CNN, By Samantha Vinograd, January 20, 2019 “……..When President Donald Trump met Kim Jong Un in June 2018, they came to a vague agreement that North Korea would work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But, as Vice President Mike Pence stated last week, North Korea has failed to take concrete steps toward giving up its nuclear weapons, and it still represents a serious nuclear threat.

Though Trump has said that he and Kim fell in love, this is looking more like a one-sided love affair. Kim is getting more of what he wants — including serious US concessions, such as suspension of US-South Korean military exercises — but we’re getting little in return. And while Trump is willing to meet again, any briefing he gets ahead of this summit would likely lay out some assessments that he needs to hear before he sees Kim again:

The truth hurts

North Korea probably has greater nuclear capabilities today than it did at the Singapore summit. In 2017, the US estimated North Korea had up to 60 nuclear warheads, and since that assessment we have seen no indication that the Kim regime has frozen its production of nuclear material or weapons. In fact, in his New Year’s speech earlier this month, Kim actually said that he wouldn’t freeze his nuclear program — let alone dismantle it — unless the US lifts its sanctions.

In fairness, Trump did not get Kim to specifically agree to a freeze when they met in Singapore, and Kim has continued his nuclearization apace. Still, this reality poses a continued risk.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said publicly that North Korea continues to produce fissile material — material used to make nuclear weapons — and there are even reports that North Korea is upgrading its nuclear infrastructure and making more sophisticated weapons. Going into a second summit, it is likely that North Korea has a bigger and better nuclear stockpile than it did last June.

This raises real questions about whether Kim actually plans to denuclearize. Even if he does, any denuclearization process will be more difficult because North Korea’s nuclear capabilities continue to grow.

With an increased nuclear threat from North Korea, US negotiators — if they are allowed to do any presidential prep — should emphasize that the concessions we require from Kim before we give him what he wants just got larger, in line with the size of his nuclear program…….

The International Atomic Energy Agency has successfully designed and implemented programs for countries like Libya and South Africa. They’ve more recently been involved in monitoring Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. In short,they are the pros, if North Korea actually lets them do their job.

Ahead of finalizing the details for a second summit, we should require bilateral US-North Korea expert level disarmament talks to hammer out specific agreements we can announce. Another vaguely worded statement will just kick the nuclear can down the road even further, giving Kim even more time to build more nukes.

When Trump said that Kim is looking forward to a meeting again, he was probably right. Kim has good reason to believe that a second summit could get him what he wants, all while he continues to establish himself as a nuclear power on the world stage. Without any real reason to change course, we should expect Kim to keep doing what he does best — playing the President and working on developing more weapons. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/20/opinions/presidential-weekly-briefing-trump-kim-summit-vinograd/index.html

January 21, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | North Korea, politics international

1 Comment »

Yes but what about the 22 dangerous, nuclear reactors in South Korea? Ther is no safe place to put their high level waste . the South Korean nuclear industry, wants to dump it on the rest of the world.

The CIA and America helped create North Korea, as a distraction . it is an excuse for the military industrial complex and nuclear bomb psychopaths.

Comment by Mrc14 | January 21, 2019 | Reply

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