Trump says 'long way' to go on North Korea crisis

[webfact]

Trump says 'long way' to go on North Korea crisis

By Doina Chiacu and Heekyong Yang

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a joint press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (not pictured) at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the North Korean nuclear crisis is a long way from being resolved on Sunday, striking a cautious note a day after the North's pledge to end its nuclear tests raised hopes before planned summits with South Korea and the United States.

 

"We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t - only time will tell," Trump said on Twitter.

 

North Korea said on Saturday it was suspending nuclear and missile tests and scrapping its nuclear test site, and instead pursuing economic growth and peace.

 

World leaders welcomed the announcement, but some expressed doubts about Kim's intentions and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be under intense international scrutiny when he meets him on Friday at the first North Korea-South Korea summit in more than a decade.

 

In a tweet minutes before he tempered enthusiasm about the North's statement, Trump interpreted it as a pledge to denuclearize: "Wow, we haven’t given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearisation (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!"

 

However, Kim's announcement did not include a commitment to scrap existing nuclear weapons and missiles, and there are doubts he would ever give up the nuclear arsenal his country has been developing for decades.

 

Kim said North Korea no longer needed to test nuclear bombs or intercontinental ballistic missiles now that his country had the weapons, and he would gear all efforts towards economic development.

 

With past failures in mind, some expressed concern about the North's intentions.

 

"North Korea has a long history of raising the issue of denuclearisation and has committed to freeze its nuclear weapons programmes in the past. We all remember how those pledges and commitments went down over past decades," said Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University in Seoul.

 

"Although the North's announcement is quite dramatic, it's natural for the world to be extra sensitive to every word spoken by Kim."

 

In Washington, Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. government viewed Kim's pledge with scepticism.

 

"This is a great public relations effort by Kim Jong Un," Corker said on CNN. "I think everyone within the administration and Congress approaches this with scepticism and caution."

 

Kim is expected to meet Trump in late May or early June, the first meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Trump's nominee to become the next secretary of state, secretly visited North Korea and met with Kim to discuss the summit three weeks ago.

 

Senator Tom Cotton, told CBS' "Face the Nation" he hoped the three Americans detained by North Korea would be released before any meeting. The Republican was unimpressed by the North's overture, saying it "is better than continued testing but it's not much better than that."

 

U.S. officials say North Korea had in the past repeatedly reneged on denuclearisation agreements, the latest in 2012 when the North launched a long-range rocket after agreeing to a moratorium on missile testing.

 

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said on NBC's "Meet the Press" the U.S. goal remains "full denuclearisation" in which Pyongyang no longer has nuclear weapons.

 

PROGRESS OR EMPTY PROMISES?

South Korea said the North's testing pledge signified "meaningful" progress that would create good conditions for successful summits with Seoul and Washington.

 

Moon, who welcomed Kim's announcement as a "major" step towards denuclearisation, is making Friday's summit his sole focus this week, a Blue House official said on Sunday.

 

For the past few weeks, South Korea has been renovating Peace House, on its side of Panmunjom, to prepare for the summit with Kim, who will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

 

Moon now has a direct phone link with Kim on his office desk, instead of having to communicate through a hotline at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom, which had been the main channel between the two sides over the Winter Olympics in February.

 

The two leaders are expected to talk over the newly installed phone for the first time this week, before the summit, South Korea said on Friday. (GRAPHIC:

 

A senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Susan Thornton, called North Korea's latest announcement "a very positive step" as she started a three-day visit to Seoul on Sunday.

 

"We are going to be doing a lot of close coordination with South Korea, allies and partners this week," the Yonhap news agency quoted her as saying.

 

Corker said Washington needed to be clear-headed about what a meeting with Kim could accomplish.

 

"To think that somebody's going to go in and charm him out of that is not realistic," he told the ABC "This Week" programme. "Is there some progress that can be made? I hope so, but that’s a big hurdle."

 

(GRAPHIC: Lines of communication with North Korea

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Additional reporting by David Morgan in Washington and Haejin Choi in Seoul; Editing by Stephen Coates and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-23

[rudi49jr]

Trump doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to foreign policy, so who cares what he says?

[Peterw42]

6 minutes ago, rudi49jr said:

Trump doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to foreign policy, so who cares what he says?

Yes thats right, he is at a loss if its someone he cant fire.

[ostyan]

A never ending story.

 

[IAMHERE]

Interesting that people don't want Trump to be successful in his dealings with the North Koreans. I can understand not liking a president but wishing for his failure in this crisis I don't get. I hope POTUS has great success with NK no matter what his detractors want to happen.

[Credo]

I don't think there are too many people who don't want Trump not to be successful with N.K..   I think there are a lot of people who are skeptical about NK and that's based on their past 'agreements.   

 

Closing down one of their nuclear facilities when we don't know how many won't be shut down doesn't mean much.   It also has to be remembered that they have pretty much done all the testing they need to do.   Just like the other highly nuclearized nations, they don't test anymore.   They don't need to test further.

 

Another factor is what did China tell Kim when he was there?    Did they agree that they will protect him should there be an attack?   What other guarantees did they give.   We don't know.

 

The final factor is the fact that Trump is such an innately dishonest person, it's hard to know what the truth is with him talking.

 

All that said, it's not much different than the Republicans who keep banging on about the horrible nuclear deal with Iran, which they definitely want to see fail, even though some of the top military brass and a whole host of countries say it is a success.   

 

[Benmart]

23 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

Trump doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to foreign policy, so who cares what he says?

I enjoy reading posts that present a position and support it with a somewhat educated and adult base. Your post failed on both accounts.

[Benmart]

10 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

Interesting that people don't want Trump to be successful in his dealings with the North Koreans. I can understand not liking a president but wishing for his failure in this crisis I don't get. I hope POTUS has great success with NK no matter what his detractors want to happen.

I agree. The haters center their venom on the person, and ignore the seriousness of the issue. Most likely they use the same tactics in their day to day dealings with people in general.

[ostyan]

NK. has never ever done what had been promised. It is a totalitarian dictatorship back to the  Ists century.

[rudi49jr]

10 hours ago, Benmart said:

I enjoy reading posts that present a position and support it with a somewhat educated and adult base. Your post failed on both accounts.

I thought it was pretty obvious and self evident that Trump doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to foreign policy. Just listen to him talk, he really doesn't have a clue about anything and he pretty much lies about everything. Having said that, I hope the talks with Kim will result in a real 'detente', although I highly doubt it.

[mrwebb8825]

Amazing how many senators and congressmen are skeptical and planning for this to fail. Almost as amazing as the number of those same people who were in office brokering the last 4-5 deals that DID fail.

At least President Trump is making an effort which is more than can be said about all who came before him. I don't trust Kim but I do trust President Trump to keep turning the screws until there is a verified deal or NK needs a new leader when Kim's people finally turn on him.

[bristolboy]

Maybe North Korea's promised hiatus in testing has something to do with this?

North Korea’s Underground Nuclear Test Facility Is Damaged, Experts Say

A large part of North Korea’s underground nuclear test facility is unusable due to the collapse of a cavity inside the mountain after the latest test-detonation occurred, according to Chinese seismologists.

http://www.cetusnews.com/news/North-Korea’s-Underground-Nuclear-Test-Facility-Is-Damaged--Experts-Say.Bywj2nahz.html

[baboon]

On 23/04/2018 at 8:55 PM, IAMHERE said:

Interesting that people don't want Trump to be successful in his dealings with the North Koreans. I can understand not liking a president but wishing for his failure in this crisis I don't get. I hope POTUS has great success with NK no matter what his detractors want to happen.

So do I. And it is possible. However Trump needs to ditch Bolton and go it alone. Bolton will only poison the well like he always does and bring us back to square one if not worse...