N. Korea suspends talks with South over military drills

[webfact]

N. Korea suspends talks with South over military drills

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea. Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via Reuters
 

North Korea on Wednesday threw into question an unprecedented summit between its leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled for next month, denouncing military exercises between South Korea and the United States as a provocation and calling off high-level talks with Seoul. Jonah Green reports.

 

North Korea said on Wednesday it had no choice but to suspend high-level talks with South Korea due to U.S.-South Korean military exercises that went against the trend of warming North-South ties.

 

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the North also threatened to cancel the upcoming June 12th summit with President Donald Trump.

 

Though on Tuesday the U.S. State Department said for now they would operate on the assumption that the summit was still on.

 

SOUNDBITE (English) U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON HEATHER NAUERT:

"I don't wanna get ahead of this announcement that everybody is so worked up about until we have some time to take a look at things, ok?"

 

It was only last Thursday when President Trump welcomed home three Korean-American prisoners released from North Korea, with the U.S. president thanking Kim Jong Un for the overture.

 

But now talks with the South are on ice: the meeting between the North and South, scheduled for later on Wednesday, was due to focus on how to implement a declaration from the extraordinary inter-Korean summit in April, including promises to formally end the Korean War and pursue "complete denuclearization," according to the South.

 

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency called joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises a "intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula" and said Pyongyang had no choice but to suspend the talks.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-16

[Thailand]

Maybe have to put the Nobel peace prize Twitter acceptance speech on hold for the time being.

[CharlesSwann]

They were holding military exercises right at this delicate time? Absolutely cretinous.

[Scott]

I believe these are annual exercises and were planned and known about well in advance.   They were not secret or unexpected.  

 

[stevenl]

1 minute ago, Scott said:

I believe these are annual exercises and were planned and known about well in advance.   They were not secret or unexpected.  

 

If correct, knowing they will be seen as a provocation, they should have been cancelled or postponed.

[sweatalot]

Back to square one?

Have been expecting something like this.  Knowing the history of Kim and NK's way of negotiating I didn't trust their sudden willingness. I thought they would find something to stop it all and put the blame on the other side

Edited May 16, 2018 by sweatalot

[Credo]

If the past is any indicator, the NK have usually been given big incentives to cooperate.   I wonder what incentives have been delivered?   I suspect that there was more on that train from China than just Kim and I am sure that Pompeo's recent trips were accompanied by incentives.   

 

 

[mtls2005]

It seems like this would have been on Secretary Pompeo's "things to do" list to sort out?

 

Seems like we're going to have to build at least two Trump Towers in the DPRK now?

[SOTIRIOS]

..obviously not in the U.S. interest that they reconcile...

[sweatalot]

9 minutes ago, SOTIRIOS said:

..obviously not in the U.S. interest that they reconcile...

... or in the NK's ....

[Grouse]

1 hour ago, Scott said:

I believe these are annual exercises and were planned and known about well in advance.   They were not secret or unexpected.  

 

Just like the release of 3 spies was unexpected. The USA would have been wise to cancel the exercises as a quid pro quo.

[Credo]

2 minutes ago, Grouse said:

Just like the release of 3 spies was unexpected. The USA would have been wise to cancel the exercises as a quid pro quo.

We are now seeing where the Trump Administration is with diplomacy.   The State Department has largely been gutted and so is understaffed and a lot of the qualified people have left.   

 

This should have been discussed at a much lower level and a reasonable compromise worked out way in advance.   Something along the lines of a good will gesture, where 3 prisoners are released and the exercises canceled or postponed, or moved or scaled back.   

 

The reaction of Kim should have been anticipated and known in advance.   This is not rocket science.   It's diplomacy 101.   

[riclag]

Stop the M exercise.Let him look good in front of his people.Get Mike back over there

[Baerboxer]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

If correct, knowing they will be seen as a provocation, they should have been cancelled or postponed.

 

And send the message to a petulant unpredictable dictator that he can demand whatever he wants, and get it?

 

Good plan Steven.

 

Or perhaps NK should have accepted the already planned and known about exercise and asked to send observers?

 

Actually, know one knows what Kim is up to but as his strings are pulled by China we might thinks their end game is a removal of US military, which strengthens Chinese influence at a time when China is taking international territory as its own. China would love a unified Korea, without US military, and preferable with its puppet Kim in control.

[Grouse]

27 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

And send the message to a petulant unpredictable dictator that he can demand whatever he wants, and get it?

 

Good plan Steven.

 

Or perhaps NK should have accepted the already planned and known about exercise and asked to send observers?

 

Actually, know one knows what Kim is up to but as his strings are pulled by China we might thinks their end game is a removal of US military, which strengthens Chinese influence at a time when China is taking international territory as its own. China would love a unified Korea, without US military, and preferable with its puppet Kim in control.

The "end game" is a reunited Korea without a Vietnam war!

 

If that means the USA pulling back to Japan, so be it. Why would South Korea want the USA to remain after a reunification?

 

All this "reds under the bed" stuff is so passé 

 

I think Putin can quite nicely balance China if he so wishes!

[puck2]

2 hours ago, Scott said:

I believe these are annual exercises and were planned and known about well in advance.   They were not secret or unexpected.  

 

I'm afraid you are not well informed.

 

The annual exercises have been delayed for the Olympic winter games in SK. So there is the question when the US and SK could do it for the (shie“t) Olympic winter games (=sports), why couldn't they do it for a more important reason: peace ??? At least trying it and looking for the result.

 

Maybe the incompetent LOTUS (Liar Of The....) will get very angry, as normal, if his good NK friend Kim will cancel the meeting, which should have „made Trump great again“.

 

 

January 2018: http://time.com/5100039/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-good-relationship/

 

“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Mr. Trump said in the Thursday interview. “I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”

Trump has made dramatic switches in the past with other opponents, though typically the stakes were political and did not involve international diplomacy.

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by puck2

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Deleted.

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by stevenl

[FritsSikkink]

4 hours ago, Scott said:

I believe these are annual exercises and were planned and known about well in advance.   They were not secret or unexpected.  

 

You can still postpone them if you really want to make this work.

[bluesofa]

Seems quite fitting, these Elton John lyrics:

I'm not the man they think I am at home, Oh, no, no, no. I'm a rocket man.

 

He's not the man they think he is at all.

 

[Scouse123]

1 hour ago, Grouse said:

The "end game" is a reunited Korea without a Vietnam war!

 

If that means the USA pulling back to Japan, so be it. Why would South Korea want the USA to remain after a reunification?

 

All this "reds under the bed" stuff is so passé 

 

I think Putin can quite nicely balance China if he so wishes!

 

There cannot be a United Korea. It's an impossibility, at least for a long time in the future.

 

You want South Korea to subject itself to the government of the North?

 

Do you think Kim Jong Un would allow himself to fall under the jurisdiction of the South?

[Aj Mick]

The Donald and his merry pranksters have been trumpeting on about the concessions and capitulation of North Korea in the face of the might of the USA, without conceding anything themselves........ just more war-games at a sensitive time. Little wonder that the North Korean's have pushed back.

[sukhumvitneon]

5 hours ago, Thailand said:

Maybe have to put the Nobel peace prize Twitter acceptance speech on hold for the time being.

They could always award Trump the Peace Prize for nothing, like they did with Obama.

[puck2]

To make a deal/contract you need 2 (two !) reliable partners. Recent history shows you cannot trust

 

• NK leaders of the Kim-dictator-family

• the USA-government under Trump anymore. Under him contracts of his predecessors have got the value of a toilet paper. Examples: Iran Atomic Contract, NATO, his attempts to cancel Obamacare, …... . And don't forget constant lying.

[Enoon]

 

Oh.......really?

 

Well, that's a surprise.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Enoon

[ChouDoufu]

rocket man just released three americans, announced the closure of the nukular testing facility, stated that north korea is willing to denuclearize, and has dropped the demand that us troops leave south korea.

 

postponing, or at least reducing the footprint of the joint exercises would be a reasonable effort at building trust and making conciliatory gestures.

 

can't imagine any reason not to, other than bolton is back, and his agenda is to ruin any chance of a peaceful resolution, just as he did under GW.

[flyingdoc]

Still a psychological blunder to continue with military exercises at this crucial time, unless of course there is a hidden agenda, and reunification is not really in all parties' interests?  Every single S. Korean to whom I spoke  both at the DMZ and elsewhere, was 100% convinced that reunification would be coming.  Not if;  only when !  Look at the costly railway 

station that has been built near the DMZ - all ready to just  up to N. Korea, and become the spearhead of the new rail

Silk Route through to Lisbon in the South, and London in the North, to be funded by China !

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

And send the message to a petulant unpredictable dictator that he can demand whatever he wants, and get it?

Petulant and unpredictable?.... trump, right?

[Baerboxer]

5 minutes ago, farcanell said:

Petulant and unpredictable?.... trump, right?

 

If you think Trump is a dictator. Otherwise your question might well demonstrate your in depth understanding.

[midas]

27 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

rocket man just released three americans, announced the closure of the nukular testing facility, stated that north korea is willing to denuclearize, and has dropped the demand that us troops leave south korea.

 

postponing, or at least reducing the footprint of the joint exercises would be a reasonable effort at building trust and making conciliatory gestures.

 

can't imagine any reason not to, other than bolton is back, and his agenda is to ruin any chance of a peaceful resolution, just as he did under GW.

Yes indeed. Remember what he said just in February

  "It is perfectly legitimate for the United States to respond to the current 'necessity' posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons by striking first,"  

[farcanell]

32 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

If you think Trump is a dictator. Otherwise your question might well demonstrate your in depth understanding.

I think trump is petulant and unpredictable (the two words I used, I believe)... but... that said, I think he aspires to be an autarch.

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by farcanell