Donald Trump and North Korea: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

About a year and a half after Bill Clinton became President the U.S. discovered that North Korea had created a nuclear weapons programme.  Alarmed, President Clinton came within moments of ordering a military strike against those facilities.  Fortunately his advisors persuaded him to find another course of action.  Jimmy Carter was dispatched to Pyongyang as an evony of the president in an effort to engage Kim-Jong il in talks on dissuading them from their chosen course.  While not initially successful Jimmy Carter was able to have the North agree to talks with the U.S. and South Korea.    Those talks would become the Agreed Framework in which North Korea would cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons and decommission its heavy water reactor in exchange for a light water reactor built by South Korea to provide electricity to the country. 

While not perfect, the Agreed Framework did for, several years  halt North Korea's attempts to construct nuclear weapons. 

The election of 2000 brought in the Republican administration of George W. Bush and with him came the neocons. A group of conservative Republicans who were quite skeptical of the  Agreed Framework believing that the previous administration had acquiesced to the demands of North Korea and were looking for reason to scrape it.  The attacks on September 11, 2001 would give them the pretext for doing so.  It all came to halt following George W. Bush's axis of evil speech at the State of the Union.

George W. Bush would constitute the Six Party Talks which never managed to deter North Korea from its nuclear ambitions with their first test of a weapon in October of 2006. 

Six tests of these weapons have taken place in the intervening years and no progress has been made on halting the North's weapons programmes.

Donald Trump is now the occupant of the Oval Office and in March made a startling announcement agreeing to a summit with North Korea's Kim-Jong un as early as May of this year.  This is Donald Trump were speaking about. A man who will convey one policy message on Tuesday and by Thursday have a complete reversal.  He's done it on every major policy issue confronting his administration.  From immigration, to taxes, social programmes, health care and numerous other issues.  Just this week the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced there would be new sanctions placed on Russia only to be undercut by Donald Trump who wants to be besties with Vladimir Putin.

One has to wonder given these conditions what will happen.
 He doesn't believe in diplomacy, has no ambassador to South Korea, no Under Secretary for Asian Affairs, the offical in charge of dealing with this issue resigned, the ambassador designate withdrew his name over comments he made about bombing North Korea and has been involved in twitter insult war with Kim-Jong un.  Given North Korea's record on such negotiations and how difficult those can be, one has to believe that Donald Trump, given his short attention span, lack of foreign policy experience, inability to make the difficult decisions and always listening to the last person in the room. These talks are a major recipe for disaster. 

To further elaborate on the issue of policy and advisors.  Remember John Bolton who was recently named Donald Trump's National Security Advisor.  He was nominated for the post of Ambassador to the UN by George W.  Bush and failed to be confirmed by the senate because of his extreme views on foreign policy.  He believes that foreign policy should be carried out through military  engagement rather than actual policy implementation.  John Bolton, in recent op-ed published in the New York Times advocated for a military  attack on North Korea and would like to see America use it armed forces against  Iran.

Donald Trump And His North Korea Problem

Bellicosity has always been an integral part of North Korea's foreign policy interactions, especially where the United States are concerned.  They've long sought recognition from America believing it would grant them legitimacy and equality on the world stage.    Kim-Jong un has continued the tradition with the constant stream of incendiary statements and when tensions have reached the breaking point North Korea has arrested American citizens into the hope that concessions which benefit Kim and his government which will insure their continued rule.

Donald Trump in recent weeks has tried to out North Korea and it's ridiculous rhetoric with his own incendiary statements believing they somehow would intimidate Kim-Jong un.  Which was a complete failure.  Particularly  the issue with the Carl Vinson carrier group which Donald Trump claimed was sailing towards the Korean peninsula. But, was found to be heading in the opposite direction towards Australia for planned naval exercises with that country's navy.

The most ridiculous moment came when, after a ten minute dissertation from Chinese Premier Xi Jinping concerning North Korea Donald Trump makes the absurd comment that dealing with Kim-Jong un wouldn't be easy.  Gee you think?  Former President Bill Clinton came the closest to dealing with North Korea and its nuclear programs in the 1990's through the Agreed Framework.

Now that the situation with North Korea has reached a crisis point Donald Trump has summoned all 100 U.S. Senators to the White House for a briefing on the issue.

In an unusual move, the entire US Senate is being called to the White House for a briefing on North Korea.

Washington has become increasingly concerned at North Korean missile and nuclear tests and threats to its neighbours and the US.

The briefing, involving 100 senators as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James Mattis, is being held on Wednesday.

China, North Korea's main ally, has called for restraint from all sides.

China's call came in a phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump on Sunday.

Mr Xi urged all parties to "maintain restraint and avoid actions that would increase tensions", according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Donald Trump Will Handle North Korea All By Himself (Ha Ha Ha)

In the summer of 1994 the Clinton administration seriously considered attacking North Korea's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon to prevent the recovery of raw nuclear material for the development nuclear weapons.  Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and the military strike never came to fruition.   What happened next nearly succeeded in fully ending North Korea's nuclear weapons development. North Korea, South Korea and the United States started negotiations which became the Agreed Framework.  

Those talks resulted in an agreement which stated: South Korea would construct a light water reactor incapable of producing weapons grade plutonium, but provide much needed electricity to the North Koreans.  Just prior to the end of President Clinton's term in office it was discovered that the North Koreans had resumed their pursuit of building and deploying nuclear weapons and the agreement collapsed.   George W. Bush's election didn't lead to further talks with the North and were further soured when in his 2002 State of the Union address accused North Korea of being part of the axis of evil along with Iraq and Iran.

In August of 2003 the Six Party Talks began. With the United States, Russia, North and South Korea China and Japan.   From the start until their discontinuation in 2009.  Even though several agreements were reached, North Korea would violate the terms setting the negotiations back.  It was during these talks that North Korea tested their first nuclear weapon in October of 2006.  Several tests have taken place since then with the  last test in September of 2016.  Analysts believe that North Korea may have as many as eight nuclear devices but are unable to verify that number.


Now Donald Trump in an interview with the Financial Times where he intimated that he would go it alone against North Korea if China refused to influence Kim-Jong un in his pursuit  of nuclear weapons, especially ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S.   To believe that China would abandon North Korea for geopolitical reasons is foolish.  Why won't China harm its relations with North Korea?

Say China decided to fully enforce all the sanctions in place against the Kim's government the Chinese believe the following would happen: Ten's of thousands of refugees would cross the border into Northeast China, it would lose a buffer between it and American forces stationed in South Korea, the reunification of the two Koreas along an economic collapse.  China's Communist Party views this as unacceptable.  


Donald Trump bullying China? Like that's going to happen. Former President Bill Clinton came the closest to reaching an equitable agreement with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program through diplomatic interactions. Not by bluster and bullying.   Donald Trump is immature, narcissistic and lacks intellectual curiosity.  None of his senior advisors have foreign policy experience and none are Korean experts  yet he and they believe China can be bullied into accepting a policy that would act against their national interests.  That will never happen.      


 

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Detonator Donnie Or Donnie The Detonator And His Nuclear Weapons

In November of 1980 America elected Ronald Reagan as President a strident Cold Warrior.  For all of his bluster and anti Communist rhetoric he began  negotiations for the first START Treaty with the former Soviet Union with the aim of reducing the nuclear arms arsenal of both nations.   Two treaties were negotiated: The first coming into effect in 1991 during the Presidency of George H.W. Bush and the second in 1993 during the Clinton administration.   Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama continued working for the reduction of nuclear weapons.   Along comes Donald Trump who thinks that if America has nuclear weapons  surely they can be put to good use. Additionally Donnie Dunderhead has no idea what the Nuclear Triad is.   And now the fool has come full circle.

Why stop there? When the stupid flows it should flow not like a trickle but like a torrent.  Today he decided that what the world needs is another  arms race.

But on Friday’s Morning Joe, during an off-air conversation with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Trump daftly asserted — according to the MSNBC duo — “Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass. And outlast them all.” Remarkably, the comment came following an appearance on Morning Joe with newly-named White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who allegedly phoned the President-elect while sitting with Brzezinski and Scarborough; when the phone was transferred over to Brzezinski, the above comment was reportedly made by Trump.


It's hard to believe or even fathom that Donald Trump will become commander of America's military on January 20, 2017.    Can the world survive with Donald Trump as commander in chief of America's armed forces?   It's beyond frightening that this man baby will have the ability to destroy  us all.