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North Korea's Leader Kim Jong-un Says He'll Give Up Weapons if US Promises Not to Invade (nytimes.com)
Several readers have shared a report: North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday. In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country's only known underground nuclear test site.
The comments by Mr. Kim were made on Friday when the leaders of the two Koreas met at Panmunjom, a village on their shared border, the spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, said on Sunday, providing additional details of the meeting. "I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States," Mr. Kim told Mr. Moon, according to Mr. Yoon's account of the meeting. It was another dramatically conciliatory statement by Mr. Kim, whose country threatened to do exactly those things during the height of nuclear tensions last year.
The comments by Mr. Kim were made on Friday when the leaders of the two Koreas met at Panmunjom, a village on their shared border, the spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, said on Sunday, providing additional details of the meeting. "I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States," Mr. Kim told Mr. Moon, according to Mr. Yoon's account of the meeting. It was another dramatically conciliatory statement by Mr. Kim, whose country threatened to do exactly those things during the height of nuclear tensions last year.
Instead of ignoring mostly-Chinese companies that do business with North Korea (as Presidents past have done), Trump is actually going after them:
US unveils largest sanctions yet on ships, companies trading with North Korea
The illegal foreign trade that Kim Jong-un uses to keep his army loyal is being threatened if not actually cut off. And he's squirming. Finally.
Just look at all the goodwill!
With surprising speed and warmth, the presidents of North and South Korea reached a broad agreement on Wednesday to work for peace and unity on their bitterly divided peninsula, the biggest step by either side to ease tensions in 50 years.
The agreement, which came after more than three hours of talks in the North Korea capital, Pyongyang, on the second day of their first summit meeting, was signed and toasted by President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and President Kim Jong Il of the North, who were shown on South Korean television clinking champagne glasses, shaking hands vigorously and smiling broadly.
[...]
The general points agreed on included the need for reconciliation and unification; the establishment of peace; the commencement in August of exchange visits by members of divided families; and more cultural exchanges.
Wait a minute... Kim Jong... Il?
Oooooh, that article is talking about the peace breakthrough from 2000. My bad, just got the wrong link!
I stole this Sig
This whole thing seems silly and confusing. All parties signed an agreement to this fact in 1953. The only reason the US would invade North Korea is if NK they started firing on someone, which they constantly keep threatening to do. They are the aggressors here. Why are they asking us for what we have alrwady given? Why is the aggressor asking us for peace? How about take away the artillery you have pointed at your neighbor?
Something is afoot here...
"specifically the aftermath of the nuclear test site collapse seemed to be a key turning point"
Yes, although China had quietly and quite suddenly pulled the plug on them a couple of months prior to the collapse by reducing amongs other things their gasoline exports by 97%.
China's action is thought to have prompted Kim's trip to Beijing, where he was perhaps told how things would now play out by his only ally and provider of the vast majority of his foreign trade. So much for self reliance then.
Whether Trump had anything much to do with this is... Doubtful.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
The Korean War was a UN police action, like the first Gulf War when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Taiwan held China's vote in the UN Security Council at the time, and the USSR was boycotting the UN that week so wasn't present to veto the UN Security Council authorization to intervene in Korea to counter North Korea's invasion. (North Korea concocted the fantasy that the South invaded the North, though enough time has passed that the vast majority of its population has been taught this as truth.)
The U.S. troops in South Korea number fewer than 24,000, vs North Korea's standing army of 1.2 million (4th largest in the world), and would be inconsequential in any hypothetical invasion of North Korea. The U.S. troops are present for one simple reason - to be overrun and die if North Korea should invade again, thereby giving the U.S. an excuse to intervene on South Korea's behalf without having to go through the UN again. The troops there are fully aware of this - they call themselves "speed bumps".
Withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea would require some sort of ironclad guarantee that North Korea would not invade again, or a guarantee of immediate UN authorization for the U.S. to intervene again, or South Korea unilaterally deciding to give up the deterrence of having U.S. troops present.
Now imagine what this place would be like if a hostile foreign power leveled every American city in an illegal war that America had started, and since the 90's had been conducting the world's largest war games each and every year to practice for another invasion by the US.
TFTFY.
(Please don't make excuses for North Korea; they're the ones who tried to unify the peninsula by conquest, remember?)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
what would you say then... what would the media say?
Keep in mind, Obama got a Nobel Peace prize JUST for getting elected in the first place.
I suspect that everyone but Trump is going to get a peace prize even though ... increasingly people just need to concede that they're not even paying attention, don't even care what happens, all that matters is crass tribal loyalty... Because nothing short of mindless tribalism justifies the standing behavior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The results are piling up. Some will deny until the stars burn cold... but if the results keep coming in they're going to find themselves increasingly isolated.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
With China building their own little islands and claiming territory that doesn't belong to them, plenty of SE Asian nations still want Uncle Sam keeping the sea lanes open.
As for Trump pulling troops out of ROK, there's really not that many to pull...~23k, and many of those aren't combat troops. We had a lot more when I lived there back in the 80s and early 90s (peaking at ~45k), but even then USFK forces were really just to show the NK govt. that attacking the ROK would also be an attack on us. For comparison, look at Germany. We're more than 25 years post Cold War, and we still have around 34k there.
Just another day in Paradise