Having one again been rebuked about the whole diplomacy thing by President Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has rolled back his announcement that he is ready for talks with North Korea without precondition. He is now both not ready for talks and restoring the preconditions.
On Wednesday, the White House issued a statement correcting Tillerson’s Tuesday’s comments, saying that President Trump views talks as “pointless,” and suggesting direct talks are not being contemplated.
Tillerson now says that any talks with North Korea are not only on a precondition that North Korea halt all weapons testing, but that they leave the testing paused for a long time. Though he didn’t give a timeline, this suggests no talks are even theoretically possible, even if North Korea capitulates for some time.
The problem with this is, as with the other preconditions for talks, this halt in testing is a major part of what the US wants out of the deal, and if they are given it as a precondition, they likely will see little reason to offer anything during the real talks.
Considering all the war games and “training” flights the USA is conducting along the border with N Korea I am astonished that anyone would even hint that N Korea would pause in their readiness preparations.
And on that note, is the US going to halt all its weapons testing for an equivalent time period? That’s only fair.
The USA’ s “upgrading” of its nukes under Obama’s tender care is completely against its obligations under the NPT. It should be reducing them, not aiding Israel and India, not abandoning ABM agreements and all the other wrongs of Obama and GWBush. Trump is just following the POTUS lead.
The real danger is hypersonic missiles and directed energy weapons. These developments aren’t covered by the NPT.
That Putin can’t get progress on a soon to be obsolete, or at least sidelined, weapons system is disappointing to say the least.
They NKs were supposed to be intimidated, darn it, not everyone else but them.
The consequence is that Tillerson and perhaps the entire State Department have now permanently become the laughing stock of the entire world. No other government will now ever believe anything Tillerson states because he may state the opposite the next day. You have to pity our ambassadors.
What a bunch a clowns at the helm of the US ship of state
Rex sure enjoys listening to himself speak.
On the bright side this beats the horror-stock of Nulandistan in the Ukraine the State Department is also notorious for.
I think Trump is right Tillerson can not possibly negotate with Kim after he saw what happened to Milosevic ,Saddam and Gaddoffi
The flakes in government cannot be trusted. Trust in Dennis Rodman.
http://pacificnewscenter.com/youre-safe-no-matter-what-dennis-rodman-on-north-korean-threat-to-guam/
Dennis looks to be a better of bet than anyone else . Smart thinking
Ah, back to our normal “negotiating” tactics. America only negotiates one way and that means we get everything we want BEFORE we sit down to the table. What’s the problem?
In Trump-il-Jong speak this means “test more rockets plz” to pressure China and Russia.
Not when we negotiated with Iran .
“We” alone didn’t negotiate with Iran. If it had only been we, the deal would be over right now. Actually, it would have never happened.
The United States has turned into the “world family’s” crazy grandmother. She can’t remember anyone’s name, and she’s mean as a snake. Still, no one wants to be left out of her will, so everyone humors her.
That would have been Hilary-ous. Trump’s more like that crazy rich Uncle Tex with the sixguns.
How much longer will Tillerson let himself be humiliated?
Maybe he’s staying long enough to get enough information on the State Department to write a scathing book when he retires.
Tillerson is not being humiliated . Tillerson is doing a good job . ,And so is Trump . This time maybe Tillerson should be called the moron . These guys work good together and they are not against debating each other . Trump needs Tillerson The important thing is we find the best solutions for our problems.not who the biggest moron is today .
That’s your opinion and you are entitled to it.
Why would any country would want to negotiate with the US?
How could they? The USA does not believe in diplomacy and does not allow those it has employed to do their work. Compare Sergey Lavrov!!!
For foreign aid.
good answer
Canada is trying with NAFTA, and believe me it is a distasteful and disturbing experience. I can’t imagine how Mexico feels since they are getting more abuse than Canada, I fear the USA is losing two close friends yet Canadians and Americans know it is easier to make enemies than friends.
How can anyone now pretend that the USA is not a mad mixed dictatorship? Trump is made into a useless puppet of the neocons when he tries to do anything to remedy the calamitous situation towards Russia, a nuclear power keeping to the rules, then is able to ruin the one possible chance of peace with NK, another nuclear power craving recognition after 64 years of US threats and provocations and possibly willing again to reduce tensions.
Someone who believes only in winners and losers, in coca-cola and FOX news, in Israel the victim and Saudi Arabia the partner, in Iran the criminal State and in Nikki Haley the diplomat cannot be considered part of the real world, but unfortunately seems unable to be otherwise and the alleged representatives of the citizens do nothing to lead him towards sanity.
His attitude towards NK and Iran would change if the US looked at Russia as a staunch ally. Then he could meet with Putin on a regular basis. After being b**ch slapped by Putin enough, he would be the anti-interventionist President everyone had hoped for. He’d still be an a**hole but no one would care.
That’s the rub; he can’t look at Russia as a staunch ally, ever, under Mackinderan geopolitics.
Iran looks set to join the Eurasian Economic Union, “… a single market comprising Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia that was set up in 2015…” according to the Iranians themselves on their news-ish channel Presstv. com, “Iran set to join Russia-led trade block”, Dec.13, 2017.
So, Russia is securing its portion of the Eurasian Century but the U.S. is still fussing over a 70-year-old war they could have wrapped up decades ago with a peace treaty.
Fox seemed like the only MSM network willing to give Trump a break, yet they
seemed to be allowed to do so by the Establishment because they had
little credibility and had been written off as infotainment.
Fox is being bought out by Disney, which looks like a counter to the impending FCC removal of the right of ISP content providers to control bandwidth to sites over actual ISPs under the guise of Net Neutrality.
Not that being able to shadowban seems to have been working all that well for them.
Fox was the mainstream media bridge between the alternative media and mainstream media. Fox made Trump possible moreso than any other MSM organization. Maybe they thought their rep would torpedo him or maybe they really just wanted the great ratings.
Trump will fight the next election (if he makes it that far) on very different media terms. Its up in the air if alternative media like Infowars can be blacked or shadowed out – they weren’t before NN rules – but there will almost certainly be no remotely favourable MSM exposure at all.
“No Neutral Ground: The Problem of Net Neutrality”, Brian Dellinger, Dec. 13, 2013, Mises. org.
“Roger Stone: Time for Real net neutrality”, Roger Stone, Daily caller Dec. 8, 2017.
Kim might try to talk Putin into building some real good nuclear defense bases in N Korea like the USA is building to defend Romania and Poland from a Iranian attack Than N Korea could be defended with enough fire power and Kim could disarm and Trump would win the argument
It is time to ask Russia to step in and negotiate a cooling off period maybe China can help. While they are at it they should pivot over to Palestine and solve that as well. I am 100% sure China can solve Palestinian occupation better than the USA.
That day is coming. Nothing gets replaced faster than a crooked judge, once everyone realizes that the bastard is taking care of his relatives, only. And not just China, Russia has earned its chops in Syria, and would be more impartial.
America should be warned – after Zionism gets hosed down in Palestine, probably a million thieving, racist Zionists will leave the “territories” and try their luck at getting something for nothing – right here in the USA. We will deserve this invasion. That will be our Reward.
This means that NK has no other option than continuing its nuclear program and that’s exactly what the US wants so they have an excuse to attack the country.