Tag: North Korea

U.S. Braces for Major North Korean Weapons Test as Trump’s Diplomacy Fizzles

New York Times logoPresident Trump’s summits with Kim Jong-un have failed to bring concrete results, and the diplomatic vacuum has given North Korea more time to build its nuclear arsenal.

WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials tracking North Korea’s actions by the hour say they are bracing for an imminent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching American shores, but appear resigned to the fact that President Trump has no good options to stop it.

If the North goes ahead with the test in the coming days — Pyongyang promised a “Christmas gift” if no progress had been made on lifting sanctions — it would be a glaring setback for Mr. Trump’s boldest foreign policy initiative, even as he faces an impeachment trial at home.

American officials are playing down the missile threat, though similar tests two years ago prompted Mr. Trump to suggest that “fire and fury,” and perhaps a war, could result.

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North Korea says new tests will help it counter US threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent.

The test — the second at the facility in a week, according to North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science — possibly involved technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the continental United States.

Pak Jong Chon, chief of the Korean People’s Army’s general staff, asserted on Saturday that North Korea has built up “tremendous power” and that the findings from the recent tests would be used to develop new weapons to allow the country to “definitely and reliably” counter U.S. nuclear threats.

New book reveals why Trump should have been impeached years ago because of North Korea

AlterNet logoIn an ideal world, a president would be removed from office if they demonstrated an obvious basic lack of competency for the job, even if they were not engaged in any unethical or criminal activities. President Trump will be impeached for contempt of Congress and abuse of power, but he ought to be retired for the simple reason that his foolishness and stupidity is a danger to the country and to all of humanity. This can be seen in excerpts from Peter Bergen’s new book, Trump and his Generals: The Cost of Chaos. Bergen describes an Oval Office meeting on North Korea in mid-April 2017 in which Trump was shown a coffee table-sized model of North Korea’s nuclear facilities during a briefing on the regional threat they pose.

Trump was also shown a satellite image of the Korean peninsula at night, showing the lights of China and South Korea and the blackness of North Korea in between. Trump initially mistook the void for an ocean. When he was shown the bright lights of Seoul just 30 miles south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, the president asked: “Why is Seoul so close to the North Korean border?”

Indeed, why is a city of 9.8 million people located where it is located? Why not pick it up like a campsite and move it to a safer area?

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Trump called for Seoul evacuation at height of North Korea tensions, new book says

Donald Trump called for the population of Seoul to be moved during an Oval Office meeting when tensions between the US and North Korea were at their height, according to a new book about the president’s relations with the US military.

In Trump and his Generals: The Cost of Chaos, the national security and counter-terrorism expert Peter Bergen also gives new details of Trump’s demands that the families of US service members in South Korea be evacuated, which the North Korean regime would have interpreted as a clear move towards war. In both cases, Trump’s impetuous diktats were ignored by his top officials.

Bergen’s book, the latest in a string of accounts of the president’s erratic leadership on national security issues, is being published on Tuesday at a time when friction between Washington and Pyongyang is once more on the rise, after more than 18 months of detente and summitry. The North Korean leadership is threatening a resumption of missile tests, and a war of words between Trump and Kim Jong-un is simmering once more.

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Trump Officials Block U.N. Meeting on Human Rights Abuses in North Korea

New York Times logoThe U.S. is trying to preserve a diplomatic opening with Kim Jong-un, even as North Korea dismisses President Trump as a “heedless and erratic old man.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has refused to support a move by members of the United Nations Security Council to hold a discussion Tuesday on North Korea’s rampant human rights abuses, effectively blocking the meeting for the second year in a row.

The American action appeared aimed at muting international criticism of Pyongyang’s human rights record in the hope of preserving a tenuous diplomatic opening between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea. Tensions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have broken out into the open in recent days.

On Monday, North Korea called Mr. Trump a “heedless and erratic old man” after the American president warned that Mr. Kim could lose “everything” if he resumed military provocations like nuclear or long-range missile tests before the 2020 elections in the United States.

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John Bolton has finally spoken, and he put up a big warning sign about Trump and North Korea

Washington Post logoJohn Bolton spoke Monday in his first big public appearance since his acrimonious split with President Trump three weeks ago.

And while Bolton didn’t weigh in on the growing Ukraine scandal, he did rebuke the Trump administration over one of its central foreign policy initiatives: the pursuit of a nuclear deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Appearing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Bolton declined to directly address things that had occurred during his time in the White House. But he made few bones about his concerns surrounding Trump’s continued pursuit of the elusive deal.

Bolton set the tone by noting early on that he was about to speak about North Korea in “unvarnished terms” and suggested that Kim was happy to see him outside the White House. Bolton then suggested that the negotiations between the two sides were very likely to be fruitless.

View the complete September 30 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

While Trump continues to tout North Korea talks as success, signs of any progress are hard to find

Washington Post logoTwo months after President Trump shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Korean demilitarized zone, his administration remains stymied in its efforts to coax Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, leading to mounting frustrations that time is running out while Kim has strengthened his position.

In a new letter to Trump on Friday, leading Senate Democrats are calling the North’s recent short-range-missile tests “a significant step backwards” and demanding that the United States hold Kim’s regime accountable for actions that “clearly contravene” U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

A leading Washington think tank concluded in a public assessment published Friday that an undisclosed North Korean operating base in Kumchon-ni houses medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking southern Japan as well as the outskirts of Tokyo.

View the complete September 6 article by David Nakamura, John Hudson and Anne Gearan on The Washington Post website here.

North Korea Missile Tests, ‘Very Standard’ to Trump, Show Signs of Advancing Arsenal

New York Times logoAs North Korea fired off a series of missiles in recent months — at least 18 since May — President Trump has repeatedly dismissed their importance as short-range and “very standard” tests. And although he has conceded “there may be a United Nations violation,” the president says any concerns are overblown.

Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump explained recently, just “likes testing missiles.”

Now, American intelligence officials and outside experts have come to a far different conclusion: that the launchings downplayed by Mr. Trump, including two late last month, have allowed Mr. Kim to test missiles with greater range and maneuverability that could overwhelm American defenses in the region.

View the complete September 2 article by David E. Sanger and William J. Broad on The New York Times website here.

Trump Comments On North Korea Missiles Leave US And Allied Troops ‘More Vulnerable’

When Trump downplays North Korea’s short-range missile tests, he is tacitly giving Kim Jong Un encouragement and putting everyone in the region in more danger, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The latest missile tests came last Friday, when North Korea launched two missiles that traveled more than 140 miles. Trump’s response was to dismiss the provocative action because the weapons were “smaller ones” and did not contain nuclear warheads. Trump also defended Kim, saying the North Korean dictator sent a small apology for the tests in a recent letter.

Kim complained about joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which Trump also criticized as being too expensive. Military leaders say the exercises are necessary to ensure troops are prepared.

View the complete August 17 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National memo website here.

Waning of American Power? Trump Struggles With an Asia in Crisis

New York Times logoThe Trump administration has taken a hands-off approach to conflicts — from Kashmir to Hong Kong to the rivalry between Japan and South Korea — as Asian officials escalate the battles.

WASHINGTON — For two and a half years, President Trump has said he is finally doing in Asia what he asserts his predecessor, Barack Obama, failed to achieve with a strategic pivot: strengthen American influence and rally partners to push back against China.

But as violence escalates and old animosities are rekindled across Asia, Washington has chosen inaction, and governments are ignoring the Trump administration’s mild admonitions and calls for calm. Whether it is the internal battles in India and Hong Kong or the rivalry between two American allies, Japan and South Korea, Mr. Trump and his advisers are staying on the sidelines.

The inability or unwillingness of Washington to help defuse the flash points is one of the clearest signs yet of the erosion of American power and global influence under Mr. Trump, who has stuck to his “America First” idea of disengagement, analysts say.

View the complete August 13 article by Edward Wong on The New York Times website here.