North Korea Crisis Live Thread - Latest NK Updates

[TomSea]

Fox radio had some blurb about NK threatening to cancel talks.

[Slip18]

"TRISH REGAN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: That's not really diplomatic!"

Trish Reagan has been driving me crazy with her filtered camera lenses and her nonstop dropping of names.

Her show is on after Neal Cavuto's.  That is my time to take leave of the markets.  I always have litter boxes to clean.

 

[Sanguine]

"TRISH REGAN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: That's not really diplomatic!"

Trish Reagan has been driving me crazy with her filtered camera lenses and her nonstop dropping of names.

Her show is on after Neal Cavuto's.  That is my time to take leave of the markets.  I always have litter boxes to clean.

 

Where have you been, @Slip18?  Haven't seen you lately.

[Slip18]

Where have you been, @Slip18?  Haven't seen you lately.

Nice to see you, Sanguine!

I have been cleaning up the backyard getting ready to build the roof.  Lotsa work there.  It is hard to stop once you start, as you well know about your sink!

@Cyber Liberty

We have also become proud new parents of three more kittens.  Too cute!

I did not mean to highjack this thread.  LOL!

 

[Cyber Liberty]

Nice to see you, Sanguine!

I have been cleaning up the backyard getting ready to build the roof.  Lotsa work there.  It is hard to stop once you start, as you well know about your sink!

@Cyber Liberty

We have also become proud new parents of three more kittens.  Too cute!

I did not mean to highjack this thread.  LOL!

 

Outdoor kittehs.  We were afraid the owl had gotten them....

[TomSea]

Trump’s North Korea Nobel buzz could die with John Bolton
By MICHAEL CROWLEY and ELIANA JOHNSON

Donald Trump wants a deal with North Korea. His national security adviser thinks the North Koreans can’t be dealt with. And North Korea thinks he’s “human scum.”

North Korea’s latest diatribe against the United States — and specifically a “repugnant” national security adviser, John Bolton — spotlights a core tension within the Trump administration as the president seeks a nuclear deal with North Korea that he hopes might earn him a Nobel Peace Prize.

Bolton is famously contemptuous of what he considers naïve U.S. diplomacy with foreign adversaries who can only be trusted to cheat and lie. Prominent on his list is North Korea itself, which he has written “will never give up nuclear weapons voluntarily,” calling past U.S. diplomatic forays with the country “embarrassments.”

Read more at: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/trump-north-korea-bolton-595064

Now is a good time to use this thread, I might. No one should feel obligated to though.

But we should keep it on topic.

[Cyber Liberty]

Now is a good time to use this thread, I might. No one should feel obligated to though.

But we should keep it on topic.

I like John Bolton quite a bit, and if his straight talk is rattling the Norks, then I say it's because they have been pulling on our chain to get some daylight between us and the South.

[Sanguine]

I like John Bolton quite a bit, and if his straight talk is rattling the Norks, then I say it's because they have been pulling on our chain to get some daylight between us and the South.

There was a pretty good and relevant comment on another thread:

Re: North Korea threatens to withdraw from summit with Trump
« Reply #64 on: Today at 11:28:09 AM »

    @IsailedawayfromFR

Per the Bloomberg article just cited  is what boomberg wrote what Bolton said?
It was Bloomberg, not Bolton who mentioned the end of Qaddaffi.
all Bolton did was to reference the model of disengagement from nuclear arms.

And exactly how did a dictator who gave up nuclear ambitions get weaker to be overthrown anyhow?  Was he going to use those on his own people to prevent a coup?

@TomSea , you will have to try harder than that.

[TomSea]

Two North Koreans including a soldier defect to South Korea: Yonhap
Reuters Staff

SEOUL (Reuters) - Two North Koreans defected to South Korea early on Saturday and were found in the Yellow Sea, Seoul-based news agency Yonhap reported, citing a government source.

Yonhap said that South Korean military spotted two people in a boat near the inter-Korean sea border, one of whom was a military officer, and they showed willingness to defect to the South.

South Korea’s unification ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea-defection/two-north-koreans-including-a-soldier-defect-to-south-korea-yonhap-idUSKCN1IK02A

[TomSea]

US ambassador to South Korea announced by White House
The White House announced Friday President Trump's intent to nominate Harry B. Harris Jr. to be the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea.

Days ahead of a White House visit from South Korean President Moon Jae-in, President Trump announced Friday his nominee for ambassador to the country.

The president said he intends to nominate Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who currently serves as the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, to be the American ambassador to South Korea, according to a statement from Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Read more at: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/18/us-ambassador-to-south-korea-announced-by-white-house.html

[TomSea]

Via the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Opinion: South-North Korean summit is the way forward
By Young-jun Kim

Posted: 5:15 p.m. Friday, May 18, 2018

History was made on the Korean Peninsula on April 27, 2018 with the summit between President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). The agreement between the two leaders at the Peace House at Panmunjom was more fruitful than expected and paved the way for the denuclearization of North Korea as well as the official end of the Korean War.

Since his inauguration in May 2017, President Moon’s diplomacy efforts have turned fear of the possibility of war on the Korean Peninsula into hope for peace and stability. The amicable atmosphere created by North Korean participation in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games improved relations once threatened by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile provocations. The achievements reached during the recent summit are remarkable compared to the previous summits between South and North Korea in 2000 and 2007.

The agreement reached with the signing of the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification of the Korean Peninsula” can be summarized as follows:

Read more at: https://www.myajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-south-north-korean-summit-the-way-forward/rZKywjDH1ebugDwiwu977O/

[TomSea]

Is Xi Jinping the puppetmaster behind North Korea's pushback on talks?
By Ben Westcott, CNN 19 hrs ago

US President Donald Trump suggested Thursday Beijing could be behind North Korea's recent harsh rhetoric against Washington in the past week, which has thrown the June summit in Singapore into doubt.

Speaking in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump appeared to blame Xi for Pyongyang's change of tone, which included threatening to call off the talks if the US insisted on unilateral denuclearization.

"It could very well be that he's influencing Kim Jong Un," Trump said, adding Kim's apparent change of heart had begun after his recent meeting with Xi in the northern Chinese town of Dalian.

Read more at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-xi-jinping-the-puppetmaster-behind-north-koreas-pushback-on-talks/ar-AAxs8Sp

[TomSea]

US reportedly cancels B-52 bomber exercise with South Korea amid threats from North Korea
Amanda Macias

A training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers flying alongside South Korean warplanes was canceled following threats that Pyongyang would withdraw from a highly anticipated summit with President Donald Trump next month, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials.

According to Friday's report, the officials said South Korea had asked to not participate in an air drill that also involved Japan and the U.S.

The White House referred CNBC's request for comment about the Journal report to the Pentagon, which said plans for a separate exercise is continuing as planned.

Read more at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/us-cancels-south-korea-military-exercise-amid-north-korea-threats-report.html

[WingNot]

Those exercises are just for show anyway.  Letting Rocketman know who has the bigger "unit".   No loss of face to zip it up for the time being.

[Sanguine]

Those exercises are just for show anyway.  Letting Rocketman know who has the bigger "unit".   No loss of face to zip it up for the time being.

We've been doing them for years. Rocketman shouldn't be able to dictate when and what we do.

[ABX]

Nice, we are capitulating to their demands.

[TomSea]

Nice, we are capitulating to their demands.

Mushroom clouds might be better? Yeah, we are really giving in.

[TomSea]

We went through this whole Gaddaffi scenario, maybe there are some roads to smooth over.  But hey, if we can invent some fault, let's go with it. If I didn't know better, some of these folks brought up the same thing about attacking a sovereign nation with Syria....

[Sanguine]

Mushroom clouds might be better? Yeah, we are really giving in.

That assumes only two options.

[WingNot]

That assumes only two options.

Lighten up Francis.

[Sanguine]

Lighten up Francis.

 

[TomSea]

That assumes only two options.

Defending others again? Eh?

Let 'em have contradictory views or searching for needles in haystacks.

[Sanguine]

Defending others again? Eh?

Let 'em have contradictory views or searching for needles in haystacks.

What does that mean?  Defending other whats?

[TomSea]

Foreign journalists set to witness North Korea nuclear test site closing
ABC News

North Korea is set to dismantle its nuclear testing facility at Punggye-ri this week in front of a delegation of two dozen handpicked foreign journalists.

The journalists flew on a chartered plane Tuesday from Beijing to the city of Wonsan on the east coast of North Korea and were set to be taken on a long journey to the nuclear site near the village of Punggye-ri.

From Wonsan, the group is expected to travel at least 11 hours on a train up the coast and another four hours into the foothills of Mount Mantap by bus and then finally an hourlong hike to the nuclear test site, according to reporters there.


DigitalGlobe/38 North via Getty Images
Figure 6a. Overview of Main Administrative Area on May 15, prior to removal of several buildings and significant landscaping effort.more +

Continued at: https://abcnews.go.com/International/foreign-journalists-set-witness-north-korea-nuclear-test/story?id=55352464

Sure, NK could be doing a head-fake on all of this.

[TomSea]

North Korea designates Chagang Province as special zone, possibly to conceal nuclear weapons

Lee Sang Yong  |  2018-05-23

The North Korean government has named Chagang Province a “Special Songun (military-first) Revolutionary Zone” and has reportedly created plans to designate the province a strategic region for the military. The region is mountainous, and harbors ideal terrain in which to conceal the country’s nuclear weapons.

North Korea has widely publicized its intent to shut down the country’s nuclear program as demanded by the international community. This intent has been exemplified by an event scheduled for May 23 to close its nuclear site in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province, prior to the planned US-DPRK summit. There have been reports, however, that the North Korean authorities are making efforts to conceal the country’s nuclear weapons and associated material.

“Designating Chagang Province as a Special Songun Revolutionary Zone was discussed during a lecture for members of the Ministry of State Security last month," a high-level source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on May 18.

Read more at: http://english.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=15203&cataId=nk01500