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US/North Korea Talks Undermined by Pompeo and Bolton
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, August 31, 2019

Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-north-korea-talks-pompeo-bolton/5687697

Trump’s “fire and fury like the world has never seen” remark about North Korea shifted to the appearance of friendship with Kim Jong-un, DJT saying “(h)e wrote me beautiful letters and we fell in love.”

Two summits and Trump’s meeting with Kim across the DMZ on North Korean soil, a first by a US sitting president, achieved nothing toward ending US hostility toward the country since the Korean peninsula was divided post-WW II.

Talks between Kim and Trump broke down because of unacceptable US demands in return for empty promises.

Its history is clear – a record of breached treaties, conventions and other deals, the US agreeing to one thing, then going another way – why it can never be trusted.

Pompeo and Bolton sabotaged talks between Kim and Trump. They got DJT to make Kim an offer to be refused — demanding the DPRK transfer its nuclear arsenal and bomb fuel to the US.

In writing, his regime also insisted that Pyongyang dismantle its nuclear and whatever chemical and biological infrastructure it may have, along with eliminating its ballistic missiles, launchers, and related facilities, as well as handing over to the US its dual-use technologies.

Almost everything hi-tech or close to it can be considered potentially dual-use.

Other unacceptable demands included North Korea providing the Trump regime with a full and comprehensive explanation of its nuclear program, giving US inspectors unimpeded access to its facilities, halting construction of everything related to its nuclear activities, along with shifting its scientists and technicians to non-nuclear activities.

The Trump regime demanded unilateral DRRK surrender to its will — in return for nothing, not even modest good faith gestures, just empty promises to be broken like countless times before.

Bolton earlier said “(w)e have very much in mind the Libya model from 2003, 2004” in dealings with North Korea.

Gaddafi abandoned his WMD development. In February 2011, US-dominated NATO launched naked aggression against the country, raping and destroying it, transforming Africa’s most developed country into a dystopian charnel house, sodomizing Gaddafi to death – things remaining violent and chaotic today.

Pyongyang has no intention of entrapping itself the same way. Its nuclear and other weapons are solely for defense by a nation that never attacked another state throughout its history.

It’s willing to abandon its nuclear arsenal only in return for iron-clad security guarantees, an end to decades of uneasy armistice, removal of unacceptable sanctions, and normalization of relations with the US and other countries.

Its nuclear deterrent was developed and remains maintained, fearing a repeat of what happened in the early 1950s — the rape and destruction of its country, massacring millions of its people by a hostile aggressor.

Perhaps US/DPRK rapprochement will never happen, surely not with hardliners in charge of US policymaking, needing enemies to advance their imperial agenda.

Since none exist, they’re invented, North Korea a key target because of its sovereign independence, not for any threat. Claiming it exists is fabricated, how the US operates against all nations it doesn’t control.

In summer 2018, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused the Trump regime of pursuing “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization,” calling its unacceptable actions “deeply regrettable,” sabotaging normalization efforts — hardliners Pompeo and Bolton to blame.

Last December, Pyongyang accused the Trump regime of “block(ing) the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever,” adding:

The US is “bent on bringing…relations back to the status of last year” when Trump demeaned Kim by calling him “little rocket man.”

Before June 2018 Kim/Trump summit talks in Singapore, Pompeo falsely claimed “American interests are held at risk by the existential threat posed by North Korea (sic)” — a bald-faced Big Lie. Throughout its history, the DPRK threatened no other nations.

Pompeo and Bolton run Trump’s geopolitical agenda, warmongers deploring world peace and stability, figures to be feared, never trusted.

Bolton earlier said the only way to end North Korea’s nuclear program is “to end (the) regime,” adding: “It’s not enough…to impose sanctions.”

A Bolton critic earlier said he never met a sovereign independent country he didn’t want to bomb. Pompeo likely shares similar views.

Because of continued US hardline actions, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho called Pompeo the “diehard toxin of the US diplomacy,” adding:

“Nothing decent can be expected from Pompeo, a man subject to strong censure from many countries for adopting the most wicked methods of the Central Intelligence Agency as diplomatic means in every part of the world.”

He “los(t) face as” Washington’s top “diplomatic…He who has no shame has no conscience.”

“He is truly impudent enough to utter such thoughtless words which only leave us disappointed and skeptical as to whether we can solve any problem with such a guy.”

He’s “a trouble-maker bereft of sensible cogitative power and rational judgment as he only casts dark shadow over the prospect of the DPRK-US negotiations.”

“We are ready for both dialogue and stand-off” — never surrendering the nation’s sovereignty to another state.

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun broadsheet slammed the Trump regime’s “imperialistic behavior” and “double-dealing” for undermining denuclearization talks.

Interviewed by the Washington Examiner last week, Pompeo threatened North Korea, saying if its authorities don’t denuclearize, the Trump regime will “continue to keep on the sanctions that are the toughest in all of history…”

Addressing the American Legion’s national convention days earlier, Pompeo demeaned North Korea, saying its “rogue behavior (sic) could not be ignored.”

DPRK First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui responded, calling his remarks “thoughtless.”

He “provoked us once again by making an irrational remark. (He) severely insult(ed) us…mak(ing) it more difficult (to pursue) working-level negotiations.”

“Our expectations for dialogue with the US have been fading gradually, and it has been pushing us to the situation where we are compelled to review all the measures that we have taken until now.”

“The US had better not try to test our patience any longer with remarks that irritate us if it does not want to make horrendous regrets.”

Pompeo earlier suggested he has post-Trump presidential ambitions. The former congressman/CIA director ruled out a Senate run.

Those close to him say he’s weighing the possibility as a stepping-stone to higher office.

Politico said “(f)ew GOP politicians have more ambition or the prospect of upward mobility than Pompeo.”

Last March, Vanity Fair headlined in caps: “ ‘AMBITION BEYOND BEING SUCH A PATHETIC SECRETARY OF STATE:’ AS THE WORLD BURNS AND TRUMP UNRAVELS, MIKE POMPEO IS ACTING A LOT LIKE A GUY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.”

President Pompeo? The possibility should terrify everyone everywhere.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image: Trump and Kim meet Sunday before Trump became first US president to step on North Korean territory. (White House photo)

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