Trump Just Walked Away From The Best North Korea Deal He'll Ever Get

[soryang]

Trump Just Walked Away From The Best North Korea Deal He'll Ever Get
March 1, 20195:45 PM ET
JEFFREY LEWIS

For the North Koreans, the logic of the offer was obvious. The United Nations had tightened existing sanctions in 2016 in response to a series of tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. North Korea has now stopped such tests, closed its nuclear test site, partially dismantled a rocket-engine test stand and offered to dismantle some of the facilities at Yongbyon. Surely an adjustment in sanctions was warranted.

Trump and his team disagreed. One State Department official explained that North Korea must not merely end testing but also give up all the weapons developed on the basis of those tests.

"Testing was part of a process of developing nuclear weapons, and the weapons themselves need to be on the table," the official explained. "It's not the testing of the weapons; it's the actual presence of the nuclear weapons — and, by the way, likewise in the case of missile testing, the ICBMs as well that are central to this discussion."

The U.S. position — that North Korea must unilaterally abandon its nuclear capabilities in exchange for promises of some different future — is a kind of American fantasy about power that is more suited to an action movie than the reality of international negotiations.

More:

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/01/698909173/opinion-trump-just-walked-away-from-the-best-north-korea-deal-hell-ever-get?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The fantasy in DC and the media about Korean affairs reminds one of the fantasies about China over the last 150 plus years. One will never go broke playing to disastrous American delusions about Asia.

See James Bradley's book, The China Mirage.

[qazplm135]

1. sorry

I know Trump is the worst, but Kim is the worst too. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

This article treats the deal like it is one NK will uphold and stick to. There's no evidence that they will.

[soryang]

2. This was the neo-cons' idea to block the talks

The US working negotiators indicated they were going with the step by step process with reciprocity, aka "small deal" to build trust. Also known as the trust building measures method. Bolton and Pompeo threw them under the bus. Bolton and Pompeo are back to the one bundle approach or Libyan approach. That will never happen.

This really isn't a negotiating process it's another regime change operation dressed up in fancy PR. Anyone who thinks that will turn out well, is under a delusion.

[qazplm135]

4. it wasn't a negotiating process

because one side is incompetent and the other side is dishonest.

[soryang]

5. The North has complied with all the military agreements it made with the South recently

Their reactors were shut down at Yongbyun recently. They stopped missile testing. So there is actually substantial evidence that they are bargaining in good faith.

[qazplm135]

6. no there isn't

signed someone who has the ability to know.

[soryang]

7. From the article

Each time the United States walked, a lot of people in Washington promised that patience and pressure would produce a better deal than the one squandered. And each time they were wrong.

[qazplm135]

8. here's what you aren't getting

you are so focused on how much we suck that you are blind to how much they suck.

both sides can be lying fools ya know.

[soryang]

9. No I'm just interested in results

I'll stick with the people who know what they are talking about, like Jeffrey Lewis, Siegfried Hecker, Robert Carlin, and Thomas Countryman.

[qazplm135]

10. nah you'll stick

with people who say what you want to hear.

[soryang]

11. No wrong again

I spend most of my time studying the right wing sources in Korea with whom I disagree to gain insight into the political situation in northeast Asia. I am not dependent on US analysts or experts.

Your responses are a projection of my original comment- "One will never go broke playing to disastrous American delusions about Asia."

[qazplm135]

12. lol

as I said, you only see one side, and are blind to the other. It's a waste of time.

[procon]

3. Bush/Cheney had their One Percent Doctrine

that posited the impossible notion that even if there's just a 1 percent chance of our geopolitical foes are in noncompliance with US policies then we are justified in dealing with them in the harshest response, including war. Trump now has his similar Trump Doctrine, doing the same thing as Bush/Cheney, threatening to invade Venezuela, and blowing up any chance of negotiating any denuclearization agreement with No Korea until Kim meets all of his demands first.