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.
North Korea: Trump Undermining Peace Efforts With Hostile Acts
US seeks talks, but keeps pressuring for more UN sanctions
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.
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