AT: Once again, Donald Trump has exposed the fecklessness of his predecessors and the foreign policy establishment, this time with his courageous strategy to denuclearize North Korea. The visit to Beijing by Kim Jong-un – held secret at first, but acknowledged and publicized by Beijing after it became clear that it was successful – reveals that so far, Trump’s strategy is working beautifully.
The official New China News Agency says Kim told Chinese leader Xi Jinping: “If South Korea and the United States respond with goodwill to our efforts, and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution.”
“Denuclearization of the peninsula” means that North Korea gives up its nuclear program in return for the US not introducing nuclear weapons to South Korea, something it has never done and would prefer not to do. Strategic nuclear weapons are most likely kept in Guam, and there is no necessity to house them in South Korea. So this actually means that the US will not use tactical nuclear weapons to, for instance, take out the military installations and forces that could be used by the North to invade the South.
Unspoken but potent is the threat of Japan developing a nuclear arsenal, something easily within the capability of the Japanese, but absolutely anathema to all Koreans and mainland Chinese. The memories of World War II are still vivid, and the thought of the Japanese being able to deploy nukes is terrifying to those who experienced the boot of Japanese militarism.
“The nuclear issue is the only obstacle” to good relations between China and North Korea, says Lu Chao, a North Korea expert at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, and without it being addressed, China would not invite Kim for a visit.
This reveals that China has indeed been seriously pressuring Kim, telling him in effect that good relations with the US are far more important to China than he is, and that if he doesn’t accede to the demands of Trump, the noose around his neck will tighten to the point that North Korea cannot survive. read more
Trump’s predecessors were ‘feckless’ or were they dutiful minions of the Military-Industrial Complex?
Jeez, Barry would have flown over there bowed to everything Asian and sucked Rocket Mans pocket rocket.
We’ll see what happens…….