Reports based on satellite images are claiming
that North Korea has made some efforts to rebuilt facilities at a
missile launch site that was in the progress of being dismantled after
the first Trump-Kim summit.
38 North and CSIS are saying the images show North Korea replaced a roof
at one building, and also fixed a broken door at the same site, at the
Tongchang-ri launch site.
John Bolton responded to the report with threats for even more “crushing
economic sanctions.” It’s not clear that’s even theoretically possible,
as the US has already cut North Korea off so far from the world that
South Korea can’t even connect a road at the border.
The State Department appeared more realistic, saying that they didn’t
think the construction was anything particularly alarming. Though Bolton
is always eager to threaten, the reality is that putting a roof on a
building or a door on its hinges, probably doesn’t portend new missile
tests.
Not sure about roofs but doors are nasty when they catch you on the way out and worse on the way in.
Bolton has every right to be concerned. He knows all about those kind of doors from Erdogan.
Bolton and Pompeo are supreme fools because they do not insist on a representative of theirs to be present at the Trump-Kim talks who makes precise notes of what was said for them to study and digest. And resign if such a representative is not allowed in future talks of President Trump with foreign leaders.
Its difficult to believe anyone Trump takes with him into such negotiations isn’t a Deep State note-taker, if not wire-bearer.
In any case, highest-level face-to-face meetings are usually mostly pre-determined theatre. Few outcomes are a surprise.
Bonkers Bolton having every right to be concerned, Brockland, when it was he himself that wrecked Trump’s summit with Kim in the first place? what a joke! He may know all about those type of doors you mentioned, but he – along with Pompous Pompass – kept insisting on keeping the sanctions they had foisted upon the DPRK.
Kim was willing to reduce – or, even eliminate – his nuclear weapons, but he wanted the lifting of most, if not all, sanctions on his country in return. However, Bonkers talked Trump into refusing to lift any of them. That’s how this latest summit failed.
There’s not much Trump can do about lifting sanctions if the House won’t go along with that. Before CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions (2017)) there was NKSPEA (North Korea Sanctions and Policy Act (2016)).
The anti-peace brigade is well versed in its dogma. Bolton may speak for them, however, the anti-peace movement is well dug-in.
https:// freekorea. us/2018/06/11/why-trump-cant-lift-north-korea-sanctions-unilaterally/
Bolton has said Trump is open to new meetings and that this summit was a success. For hawks, perhaps it was a success in not accomplishing anything, but neither did it end the peace process.
https://www. reuters. com/article/us-northkorea-usa-bolton/trump-is-open-to-talking-again-with-north-korea-bolton-says-idUSKCN1QO1JC?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews
At some point, whether or not NK has nukes is not going to matter because the need to have NK part of the global economy, Eurasia’s or the West’s, or some shared accomodation, will be too great.
This is the North Korean facility at Tongchang-ri near the border with China. Prior to ‘Singapore’ this facility had been used primarily for the testing of long-distance-rocket engines. After ‘Singapore’ it was partially dismembered/disassembled.
It is now known that the new activities at the site which appear to be for reassembling and perhaps restarting rocket research and engineering were begun before, not after ‘Hanoi’ and that has to be significant.
Why before ‘Hanoi’? I do not pretend that I know but the most logical interpretation is that Kim’s smiles at and seemingly cordial handshakes with President Trump at ‘Hanoi’ were hiding his peeve that President Trump had not yet removed or publicly promised to remove even a single one of the 11 US sanctions on North Korea. Smiling and handshakes at ‘Singapore’ had helped him at home but it is doubtful that more of the same would help him again. Kim almost certainly had to bring home some beef this time and he did not get enough or even any. I believe that that was deliberate on President Trump’s part: “you have to walk away some time.” I believe that that is fake. I believe that it was Kim who walked away even more peeved than before. He did not have to state that publicly because President Trump knew it.
Did President Trump made some veiled/soft but unreal promises on sanctions to Kim at ‘Singapore’? No one but Trump, Kim, and the translators know which is terrible for the more low-level negotiators who need to know that past history to continue meaningful negotiations with their NK counterparts.
Was there no one on the lower-level teams talking to North Koreans who sensed this peeve prior to ‘Hanoi’ and warned President Trump that he was not going to get any concessions from Kim without a substantial softening of the sanctions which is exactly what happened.
At this time it appears that the negotiations with N. Korea are more than temporarily failed. They appear to have been royally botched by our side.
Will Trump reach for more sanctions as advocated by Bolton?
Or are we witnessing one huge Kabuki play?
Inter-area Connecting Barrier Mechanisms are threat to world peace.