TRUMP-LOVE? North Korea's second missile launch in less than a week
North Korea is at it again. The North launched a pair of short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korean and US officials said. That's the second such launch in less than a week. In response, South Korea held an emergency National Security Council meeting this morning. It's not clear if the missile launches will affect the working-level talks between the US and the North, which US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hoped would start soon. It was just a month ago when President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and Trump became the first sitting US President to set foot on North Korean soil.
Trump Learns That Love Letters From A Murderous Dictator Don’t Mean Much After All
After the Singapore meeting, Trump took to praising Kim ― who reportedly has had his uncle and his stepbrother murdered, while incarcerating countless political prisoners ― as a visionary leader. He has called Kim “very honorable,” a “very worthy, very smart negotiator,” and “very open and terrific.” He has gushed over the letters that Kim sent him and told audiences that he and the dictator “fell in love.” Just before the start of the Hanoi summit, Trump even called him “my friend” and said the United States and North Korea have a “special relationship,” a term once reserved for America’s ties to Great Britain.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-kim-jong-un-summit-collapse_n_5c7842fae4b0de0c3fbf2d35
= new reply since forum marked as read
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the leaders of the United States and North Korea to have a third summit, and show flexibility in resolving the Korean peninsula nuclear issues, following his unprecedented state visit to Pyongyang last week.
In talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Osaka, Japan, ahead of the Group of 20 summit, Xi said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s determination to denuclearise remained solid, and Beijing was still committed to political engagement over the future of the peninsula.
The meeting with Moon came about a week after Xi made his first official visit to Pyongyang, where he pledged to support North Korea in its security and development needs.
“The trend for resolving the Korean peninsula situation through dialogue has not changed,” Xi was quoted by state-run China Central Television as saying on Thursday.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3016397/chinese-president-xi-jinping-calls-us-and-north-korean-leaders
However, underdeveloped (in every way) North Korea lacked the scientific capability to develop nuclear weapons, on their own own; and in 2006 - when North Korea conducted its first successful nuclear explosion - Xi Jinping lacked the position to authorize providing impoverished North Korea with a nuclear capability.