Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
While Trump continues to believe he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are the very best of friends now, and the hostility between our two nations is all patched up and done with, reality begs to differ.
The United States has made several proposals to North Korea about ending its nuclear program, CNN reports — all of which the regime has rejected and called “gangster-like.”
That makes it awfully difficult for top diplomats to make good on Trump’s empty promises following his meeting with Kim in June.
“[E]verybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience,” Trump tweeted triumphantly in June.
Numerous reports, however, contradicted Trump’s claim that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat. That includes a report from Trump himself to Congress.
Less than two weeks after Trump’s celebratory tweet, he notified Congress he was extending the national emergency status that has been applied to North Korea for years.
“The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump said.
In July, satellite photos showed the construction of at least one liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile at a facility outside Pyongyang, a missile that could potentially hit the United States, according to officials.
So much for everybody feeling safer.
Despite these reports, Trump has continued to heap praise on Kim.
“I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake,” Trump tweeted in July. “We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea.”
While Trump may continue to believe he made such an agreement, the people in his government tasked with making a real and enforceable agreement have not been so lucky.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it holds “some high-level officials within the US administration” responsible for the failure to come to an agreement. But the failure, of course, belongs to Trump, whose “contract” and “handshake” with Kim didn’t have quite the effect he said it would.
The Trump team had worried, prior to the June summit, that Trump might humiliate himself in the meeting, but the humiliation has continued months after the summit.
Days after the summit, for example, North Korea released a video of Trump saluting a North Korean general, which was an inappropriate and shocking show of deference to the brutal regime.
And for all of Trump’s bragging that North Korea has ended its nuclear program, it’s clear that nothing of the sort has happened, and North Korea has yet to agree to any such proposals.
Instead, North Korea continues to make a fool and a liar out of Trump. And it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
