Anyone who has paid the least attention to the US and North Korea bickering knows that its uneasy time that we are in…
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The US President, Donald Trump, during the United Nations General Assembly held last month intimated the august body that if the US is forced to defend itself, it will “totally destroy” North Korea. Then, he unwrapped an executive order giving his administration new powers to sanction people and companies that do business with the country. The goal: to cut off financing that props up the North’s weapons programs. Even China – North Korea’s largest trading partner – seems to be on board and the Chinese authorities ordered the country’s banks to cut ties with North Korea.
What’s Kim saying?
That Trump is “mentally deranged” and will “pay dearly” for his threats. And North Korea officials warn that the country is now considering testing a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific.
What’s everyone else saying?
* Anxious silence * Pretty much everyone, including the Trump administration, is hoping these sanctions will squeeze the North into sitting down to the negotiating table. Meanwhile, France is considering backing out of next year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea over safety concerns.
Anything new?
Yes!
Yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, during a visit to Beijing China acknowledged that the United States is maintaining direct channels of communications with North Korea even as tensions rise over the North’s nuclear and missile programs and the countries’ leaders spar through bellicose name-calling. “We ask, ‘Would you like to talk?’” he said. “We can talk to them, we do talk to them.”
Interesting stuff! Except that well, Donald Trump promptly contradicted his own secretary of state barely 24 hours later. As usual via the medium of social media, specifically, Twitter!
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,”Trump tweeted, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
Trump further added that “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.”
Hmmm! Uneasy times…
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