CIA Director Mike Pompeo apparently made a top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as an envoy for President Donald Trump to meet with the hermit kingdom’s leader – Kim Jong-un. The extraordinary meeting was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Pompeo’s meeting with Kim marks the highest-level meeting between the two countries since 2000, when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un. Interestingly, the news of the secret trip comes on the same day some Senate lawmakers indicated they would not vote “yes” on Pompeo’s Senate confirmation.
During a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Trump admitted about the secret meeting – “We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea. We’ve also started talking to North Korea directly.” But before the face-to-face meeting between Trump and Kim, the Koreans will have their own meeting.
Before the news broke that Mr. Pompeo, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, had made the secret trip to the North, it was reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in were discussing plans to make a stunning joint statement at their summit next week – a permanent end to the 68-year state of war between the two countries.
Scheduled to meet April 27 in the border village of Panmunjon, this will be the third-ever summit of leaders from the two Koreas. Technically, both North Korea and South Korea are still at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended with a truce. No peace treaty has been signed to replace the 1953 peace agreement that ended the Korean War.
Trump administration is hoping for a successful summit between Moon and Kim, which could pave the way for a meeting between Kim and Trump – the first between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader. It would give a tremendous boost to the rating of Trump’s leadership among his fellow Americans.
However, whether a declaration of the end of the Korean War between Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon – if it ever happens – will be followed by the ending of the heavily fortified DMZ (demilitarized zone), or merely empty rhetoric, remains to be seen. According to the U.S. Department of Defence, the U.S. suffered 33,686 battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths, during the war.
But President Trump can’t seem to wait for the meeting between the North and South to take place. Talking like a “Mafia Godfather”, the U.S. president declares – “They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war.” With Abe at his side, Trump repeated that he plans to meet with Kim – possibly in early June – but raised the possibility the summit might be called off due to lack of agreement over an agenda.
That agenda is most likely the different expectation between North Korea and America on the issue of denuclearization. Trump also took credit for improved relations, including North Korea’s participation in this year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, bragging – “Without us and without me in particular, I guess, they wouldn’t be discussing anything and the Olympics would have been a failure.”
Mr. Trump’s boastful act about giving his “blessing” is seen as a humiliation to the Koreans, especially the South. It gives an impression that the South Korea somehow is under the thumb of the U.S. It also raises the perception that President Moon Jae-in is a puppet of the U.S. Yet, in the same breath, a formal end to the Korean War cannot proceed without direct U.S. participation.
The United States signed the 1953 armistice agreement on South Korea’s behalf, and any peace treaty would have to be signed between the United States and North Korea. That’s why even if both Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon agree to kiss and make peace on April 27; it would be just verbal agreement or lip service at best, something which notorious Kim Jong-un can live with.
The primary reason a peace treaty has never been signed is because North Korea has long insisted that if a peace treaty was agreed, U.S. troops would no longer be required in South Korea, a demand the United States couldn’t agree and has rejected. It’s hard to imagine how Kim and Trump would agree to compromise on the trump cards they have.
President Trump wants a complete North Korean denuclearization while Dictator Kim wants a complete U.S. troops’ withdrawal. And neither of them is expected to surrender. Kim fears that he could suffer the fate of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi if he gives up his nuclear weapons. Trump, on the other hand, has no intention of giving up the U.S. strategic military base in South Korea.
Since 2011, Kim regime has fired more than 85 missiles and 4 nuclear weapons tests, more than his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a period of 27 years. North Korea is the only nation to have tested nuclear weapons this century. And he appears to be enjoying all the attention the world is giving to his upcoming meetings.
Regardless of the outcome of the diplomacy drama, Trump has cleverly – and shamelessly – claimed all the credits that he could lay his hands on. The U.S. president hopes that a complete denuclearization of North Korea could be materialized by 2020, in time for him to seek re-election for the White House again.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Kim Meets Xi – North Korea Is Committed To Denuclearization … But There’s A Catch
- Trump Meeting Kim – Don’t Count The Chicken Before It Hatches
- Kim’s “Hwasong-15” Could Reach Washington, Proclaiming Itself A “Nuclear State”
- North Korea’s 10 Clever Tactics To Evade Economic Sanctions
- Trump’s Declaration Of War – 20,000 South Koreans Could Die … Per Day
- China Has Spoken – If US-South Korea Strikes North Korea, We Will Defend Kim
- U.S. Just Burnt $244 Million On A Test – North Korea Has 50% Of Hitting America
- Relax Mr. Kim, Here’s Why China Will Not Allow U.S. Attacks North Korea
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April 18th, 2018 by financetwitter
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