OT: Korean Summit

Trump is full of crap also, signs FOSTA

China and Russia assumed they would be involved in the final negotiations for NoKo. Instead, it’s looking like a deal could be struck directly between SoKo and NoKo with support from the US. China worries that could lead to Korean reunification under the influence of the US. That may explain the hand holding and public ceremony. Lil Kim gets to portray himself as a hero who reunified Korea, then spends the rest of his life living as a billionaire playboy.

I still don’t trust Rocketman, but there is an outside chance we are on the verge of a historic shift. A unified Korea with American troops is the nightmare scenario for China.

In any negotiation, you want to leave an honorable out for your opponent. That appears to be what they are doing with Kim.

mark - I hope you are right about the united Korea. That would be amazing. Its just hard to imagine a dictator giving up power. It wouldn't be just Kim giving it up, but everyone around him. I doubt they would be too keen on that idea.

I would imagine a Berlin wall type scenario where, once they allowed some cracks, the whole thing would break open quickly.

Perhaps Kim is tired of watching his people starve. Perhaps Trump has him spooked by bringing in Bolton who wrote an article in the WSJ advocating invading. More than likely though, its another con Kim is pulling and he has no intention of giving up or sharing power.

Regardless, anything that backs off from the brink of war is good.

Historically, there has been a wide gap between what North Korea promises and what they actually do. I'm not expecting that to change, but I hope I'm wrong.

Here’s the difference. In past negotiations, the US took the pressure off after NK promised to behave. This time, we are keeping sanctions on until they actually do something. What a concept !

nemesisk7 said

"Trump is full of crap also, signs FOSTA"

What should he have done? It passed the Senate by like 98 to 2. This shit is going to become law whether Trump signs it or not. If he had refused to sign it, the headline the next day would have read "Trump Refuses to Sign FOSTA Because he's a Misogynist Who Hates Womyns and Probably Sleeps With Prostitutes".

mark94 said

"A unified Korea with American troops is the nightmare scenario for China... . This time, we are keeping sanctions on until they actually do something."

So you want American troops to remain, even if the Korean peninsula reinifies? What are you, some kind of globalist? LOL

Also, if I'm not mistaken, exactly three American presidents have placed unilateral sanctions on North Korea: Truman, Obama, and Trump. All other sanctions against NOKO throughout history have actually been applied by the UN, the EU, or China. Truman's sanctions lasted more than half a century, at the end of which they still appeared to be attempting to build a bomb.

Direct trade between America and North Korea has been illegal since 1950, and Obama and Trump have closed some "loopholes" that would have allowed indirect trade. Obama was the first US president to sanction a North Korean dictator personally, rather than just his country.

But the thing is, the Kim dictatorship loves sanctions and embargoes because this allows the regime to blame outside forces for his country's misery. And regardless of sanctions against him personally, he doesn't seem to be affected. His people are starving, but they were already starving... because a communist economy is no economy at all. And the regime has already demonstrated that it doesn't care about the lives of its citizens. So why should sanctions matter?

I wonder if this is just a ruse by Kimmy Boy to get a KFC franchise in N. Korea. Something tells me that the summit is going to be held at the Golden Corral,
It’s not really going to be a summit it’s going to be a wing eating contest. LOLOL

Tweet of the day

How long before a federal judge in Hawaii orders the Korean War must continue ?

^So you do have a sense of humor. Who knew?