North Korea says US 'hell-bent on hostile acts'

[struggle4progress]

John Bacon, USA TODAY
Published 2:25 p.m. ET July 4, 2019
Updated 5:20 p.m. ET July 4, 2019

Three days after President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un shared a warm and fuzzy moment on North Korean soil, the despotic regime accused the U.S. of being "hell-bent on hostile acts" against the secluded nation.

North Korea's mission to the U.N. released the harsh statement Wednesday, saying it was responding to a letter co-signed by the U.S. urging nations hosting North Korean workers to send them back in accordance with global sanctions. The letter was sent last week – a few days before the historic meeting of Trump and Kim – to all U.N. member states.

The Trump administration also has lobbied the U.N.'s North Korea sanctions committee to halt all deliveries of refined petroleum to North Korea, a move put on hold by Russia and China.

Trump made no mention of the letter or the press for more sanctions when he tweeted an offer last week to meet Kim in the DMZ. Trump, who already had scheduled a trip to South Korea, previously held more formal summits with Kim in Singapore and Vietnam ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/07/04/north-korea-says-us-hell-bent-hostile-acts/1648787001/

[gratuitous]

1. And after Trump walked all that way to bow to Kim

Remember how discombobulated conservatives got over their frenzied imaginary "bows" that Obama was doing to other world leaders? Well, here's Trump making obeisance to Kim and getting the back of North Korea's hand for his efforts to abase himself. Where are the conservatives decrying Trump's fecklessness and weakness in the face of a ruthless dictator?

[dalton99a]

2. Trump better send another love letter

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Obviously big beautiful letters that both of these leaders have written to each other don't work...

as effectively as these two have claimed. Perhaps not enough glitter in the envelope?

[soryang]

4. It was just the media choreography of the Moon-Kim meeting that Trump sought to copy

President Moon's meeting with Kim at Panmunjom on April 27, 2018, captured the media world wide and stimulated speculation about what could be.

The very steps and gestures that Moon took that day with Kim Jong Un were carefully mimicked by Trump at Panmunjom with Kim. While this media episode was unfolding US diplomats were still twisting the knife in North Korea's back, while Trump feigned friendship for the North Korean leader. This is the two sided face of US diplomacy referred to by South Korea's former Unification Minister Chong Se Hyun as the politics of a "indian killing white general," in the past.

Thae Yong Ho, the right wing pundit and North Korean defector, says that Trump was trying to emulate Nixon's historic visit to China. This is nonsense. Trump never could get the imagery from the Moon Kim summit out of his mind. The significance of Trump stepping on the North Korea side of the military demarcation line really doesn't mean much if anything. President Moon's gesture was far more meaningful. It meant "We are one people." For Trump it meant nothing but a campaign media stunt, to show he could compete with Xi Jinping, among others.