I say again: The turnabout by N Korea smells bigly to me.

[triron]

[matt819]

1. Of course it does

The real dictator is playing the wannabe dictator.

[poli-junkie]

2. Yep. Total Kabuki theatre

How did N. Korea get the ability to build a bomb? Per Richard Engel's Special Report about a month ago (Friday night during Rachel's time slot), Russian ships anchored offshore from N. Korea. What were they doing? Engel manages to interview one of the Russian ship's captain, who could neither confirm nor deny contraband being offloaded from the ship. The Russians have been providing the necessary bomb-making parts to N. Korea. Trump does his blustery talk of nuking N. Korea and N. Korea eventually declares they're denuclearizing (really because the test site collapsed) and then Kim is welcomed as part of the despotically corrupt club. I think there's corruption in S. Korea, too (Cohen getting pay-to-play $ from that Korean Aeronautics firm). The Olympics was used as a cover to the "warming" between the North and the South. Putin wants all of this and Trumpie gets credit for "negotiating" the release of the 3 Americans. It's a win-win for both and now the corruption grows like a cancer in that region. The whole thing is staged! I'm amazed there has been no looking in to how quickly and easily N. Korea pivoted to being an "Excellent" country. Where is Richard Engel's follow-up to his reporting? Why isn't Rachel or any media looking into this?

[triron]

5. It bugs me that no news outlets seem remotely curious about this.

Magically N Korea suddenly behaves like a responsible nation state. I just don't buy it.

[Anon-C]

8. Absolument! Nt

[TheRealNorth]

3. It's another con

All North Korea has to do is say they'll get rid of the nukes and Trump can claim his victory. They won't, of course, but it won't matter until at least after the midterms.

[world wide wally]

4. This film is directed by Vladimer Putin

[PaulX2]

6. NK Has Their Nukes To Blackmail World With Now Wants $$$$ And Stuff

Obviously.

Trump should take credit for allowing the blackmail when it happens. He did nothing down the home stretch other than golf.

[DFW]

7. This is what I smell.

Jong Un has no money. He used money already mostly spent on missiles and nuclear development by his dad to make a big splash and seem like a deadly threat. In fact, his cupboards, both matériel and financial are probably bare. He knows that flattery gets you everywhere with Trump, so if he makes The Donald think he "convinced" Jong Un to give up something he has no more of anyway, and will give him financial aid as part of the bargain, what's not to like? And now Trump wants the Nobel Prize for convincing a starving man to go on a diet.

(Well, OK, he really wants it because Obama got one, but it sounded good).