North Korea: Trump Undermining Peace Efforts With Hostile Acts

US seeks talks, but keeps pressuring for more UN sanctions

North Korea’s UN Mission issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the Trump Administration, saying that while continuing to publicly court dialogue with North Korea, they continue to take hostile actions against them.

This comes after President Trump’s weekend visit with Kim Jong Un, along the demilitarized zone. Just a day before that visit, the US was involved in a joint letter calling for all UN member states to expel all North Korean workers.

The US call for this expulsion came with a US allegation that North Korea had violated a cap on petroleum imports. The State Department ordered this the same day that the US proposed Trump’s visit to meet with Kim.

This confusion about US intentions has been a recurring problem for North Korea, as while on the one hand Trump has repeatedly talked up diplomacy and predicted very positive results, US actions have told a very different story, and an expectation of a worsening situation.

It is this same divide which has informed the diplomatic problems so far, as North Korea has seen its agreements met with more and more US sanctions, and wonders if the US ever intends to deliver anything else as part of an agreement.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.