With the hoopla of the Pyeongchang Winter Games winding down, North Korean officials cancelled what was billed as an historic meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. While sitting close to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong at the opening ceremonies, Pence avoided any formal greeting. Pence was a no-show at South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s meet-and-greet the night before the Opening Ceremony, where the U.S. and North Korean delegation were due to get acquainted. Trump officials left the door open to a possible meeting n Seoul before Pence flew back to Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 19. U.S. officials deny that any formal meeting was planned for Pence to greet the North Korean delegation, despite expressing openness to pull it off. Kim’s cancellation speaks volumes about resuming his nuke and ballistic missile activity after the games.
Before President Trump’s Sept. 19, 2017 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he traded barbs with Kim and North Korean officials over North Korea’s threats of nuclear war against the U.S. Trump warned Kim Aug. 8, 2017 about “fire-and-fury” should the dictator continue to make nuclear threats against the U.S. Making threats is only one small part of Trump’s problem with Pyeongchang. Trump’s real concern with North Korea relates to his nukes and ballistic missile program, growing dangerously close, according to intel experts, to developing a nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile [ICBM]. When North and South Korean officials met before the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] Jan 8, 9, hope sprang eternal that it was a genuine peace overture. When South Korean officials broached Kim’s nukes and ballistic missiles, North Korea went blank.
Whatever good will happens at Winter Games it doesn’t change the basic facts on the ground in North Korea. Kim’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 23, 2017 that it’s “inevitable” North Korean missiles would hit the U.S. When you consider Trump faces the prospect of stopping Kim’s nukes and ballistic missiles, the Winter Games is nothing but window dressing. “At the last minute the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea [DPRK] decided not to go forward with the meeting,” said State Department spokesman Heather Nauert. “We regret their failure to seize the opportunity,” knowing, full well, the meeting would have collapsed as soon as the U.S. insisted North Korea disarm its nukes and ballistic missiles. All the wishful thinkers in the press, can’t face the growing reality that at some point in the near future the U.S. military will have to do the talking.
North Korean tried to spin canceling the Pence meeting, saying they never intended to meet the U.S. in South Korea. “We have no intention to meet with the U.S. side during the stay in South Korea,” said the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry. Putting the onus on the U.S., North Korean said it wouldn’t use the Pyeongchang Winter Games for politics. “We are not going to use such a sports festival as the Winter Olympics as a political lever. There’s no need to do so,” making it sound like the DPRK was willing to talk under different conditions. For 25 years the DPRK has skirted U.N. sanctions over its nuke and ballistic missile program, leading to the current dilemma. Regardless of all the risks on the Korean Peninsula, Trump has told Moon that he can no longer placate North Korea when they’re dangerously close to a nuclear-tipped ICBM, ready to hit anywhere in the U.S.
Taking heat from the press for missing a golden opportunity, Pence clarified what any discussion would look like with the DPRK. “But if I have any contact with them—in any context—over the next two days, any meeting will be the same as it was here today: North Korean needs to once and for a all abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions,” Pence said before he left for the States. Press report characterized the cancelled meeting as a missed opportunity, despite the fact, as Pence said, the U.S. would assert its demand for North Korean to disarm its nukes and ballistic missiles. U.S. officials knew that whomever Kim sent to South Korea, they wouldn’t have the clout to engage in any substantive discussions in any meeting. Canceling the meeting was the DPRK’s way of acknowledging that the meeting would only make a bad situation worse, without any compromise.
Media hype, then disappointment over the non-meeting between Pence and the North Korean delegation, shows that it’s more about discrediting the Trump White House than facing reality. Pence’s Chief of Staff Nick Ayers speculated that the DPRK cancelled the meeting because they knew Pence’s message. “Perhaps that’s why they walked away from a meeting, or perhaps they were never sincere about sitting down,” said Ayers. While everyone wants peace, Trump faces a harsh reality of preventing Kim from getting a nuclear-tipped ICBM. Once the Pyeongchang Games end, the White House will resume maximum pressure on the DPRK and its allies, especially Russia and China, to disarm its nukes and ballistic missiles. One more nuclear test or ballistic missile launch could trigger a U.S. military strike after everyone clears out of the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
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