North Korea is already getting concessions ahead of Trump-Kim talks

[babylonsister]

North Korea is already getting concessions ahead of Trump-Kim talks
South Korea wanted out of a joint military exercise that could anger Kim Jong Un. The US accepted.
By Alex [e-mail]@vox.com May 18, 2018, 12:50pm EDT


The United States agreed to downsize a military exercise with South Korea over concerns about how North Korea would react — in an effort not to anger Pyongyang just weeks before the planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Seoul was worried Pyongyang might bristle at a joint US-South Korea-Japan air exercise, especially because the US planned to fly B-52 planes.

Those planes can carry nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang would (understandably) be unhappy if they flew so close to — or even over — the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang already claims that any US-South Korea military training is just practice for a future invasion of North Korea. The US has in the past flown B-52s near the peninsula in response to North Korean nuclear tests, angering Pyongyang.

But South Korean leaders didn’t want to ruin the prospects of a Trump-Kim summit by taking part in the air exercise, especially because it involved the B-52 bombers, and asked the US if South Korean could bow out.

The Trump administration agreed, and decided to run the drill with just Japan and completely outside of South Korean airspace — even though the original plan was for the bombers to minimally enter it.

This is quite a concession to North Korea. In the past, the US and South Korea have conducted their drills without any major modifications, regardless of North Korea’s bluster. But now that Pyongyang has threatened to cancel the summit, it seems Washington and Seoul want to ensure they don’t do anything to scuttle the historic meeting.

Some experts don’t think it was a good move. “In suspending any sort of military exercise Washington and Seoul are sending the wrong signal to North Korea,” Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest, told me. “Unless Washington was to get a concrete concession from Pyongyang, this was a bad idea.”

more...

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17368468/north-korea-trump-usa-south-korea-b52

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Spanky will give away the store if he thinks he can get

a Nobel Peace prize out of the "deal." Obama has one, so Spanky has to be sure to get one too. And his would be bigger.

[nature-lover]

2. And better ratings and a larger crowd during the acceptance ceremony too.

Maybe he could get the prize now and then resign with his tenure at it's peak. Just dreaming....

[Igel]

4. It started with the weak link.

The S. Korean government that wants to believe in reconciliation for all kinds of domestic political and psychological reasons. If only that the youngest are convinced that their enemies are those in their own country, not the North with all the weapons pointed at them. (Why does it always feel like Groundhog Day and we're back in the '80s?)

They want this concession, they get this concession. "No, sorry, you may be sovereign over this territory, but we're going to conduct military drills on your territory anyway." Really?

[spanone]

3. see #1...👍🏼