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  1. #201
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    Meanwhile trump can't decide if they're a nuke threat or not

  2. #202
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    ^Any idea what is written on the flags?

  3. #203
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    자주통일 ...sovereign unification

  4. #204
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    Sexy metals...Pepe

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knows the importance of rare earth elements, and North Korea has reportedly found one of the world's biggest deposits 150km from Pyongyang; is this another factor behind the recent thaw with the US?
    Sexy metal: the missing element in the Korean puzzle | Asia Times
    Last edited by SKkin; 25-06-2018 at 03:56 PM.

  5. #205
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    ^^ Thanks

  6. #206
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    Meanwhile.Trump was so adamant Kim would stick to the deal.

    North Korea still secretly enriching uranium, say US officialsReport cites ‘unequivocal evidence they are trying to deceive the US’ in blow to Donald Trump


    Julian Borger in Washington




    North Korea has increased its production of enriched uranium for nuclear weapons at secret sites in recent months, contrary to Donald Trump’s claims that it was “no longer a nuclear threat”, according to a new report.


    NBC News quoted more than a dozen US officials familiar with the intelligence assessments. Coming soon after satellite images showed rapid improvements being made to a North Korean nuclear research facility at Yongbyon, the developments will make it harder for Trump to claim that his summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore this month was a success.


    Neither of the concessions the US president claimed Kim had delivered – the destruction of a missile engine testing site, and the repatriation of the remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean war – has materialised so far.
    Meanwhile Trump has already made a significant US concession: suspending joint exercises with South Korea that had been due to start in August.


    The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is reported to be planning a trip to Pyongyang in early July to continue negotiations with the North Korean government, in the hope of persuading the regime to make specific commitments on nuclear disarmament.


    Over the past seven months the North Koreans have conducted no new missile or nuclear tests. But NBC quoted a US official briefed on the latest intelligence as saying that uranium enrichment had been stepped up.


    “There’s no evidence that they are decreasing stockpiles, or that they have stopped their production,” the official said. “There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the US.”
    It has long been suspected that the North Koreans have established a uranium enrichment plant in at least one secret site apart from Yongbyon complex.


    “There are lots of things that we know that North Korea has tried to hide from us for a long time,” a US intelligence official told NBC.


    The joint statement signed by Trump and Kim in Singapore was vaguely worded. Kim promised “complete denuclearisation” but that has been Pyongyang’s theoretical policy since 1992, and the regime interprets it to mean a long-term mutual process in which the US would also disarm.


    Pompeo was due to start follow-on negotiations with the North Korean leadership within a week of the 12 June Singapore summit. But Pyongyang appears to have dragged its heels. The secretary of state is now hoping to visit Pyongyang during a trip to the far east in the second week of July, as first reported by the Financial Times.
    “There was a delay but I think he has now got the agreement to go,” said Victor Cha, a former director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council.
    “They have to put meat on the bones of the Singapore statement. Pompeo is under pressure to get something before August, when the exercises were going to start,” said Cha, now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
    It the visit goes ahead it is possible Kim would order the repatriation of the remains of between 100 and 200 US service personnel killed in the 1950-53 war, to coincide with Pompeo’s arrival. It is a gesture that US officials had been predicting would take place last week. Trump told a rally in Minnesota last week that the repatriation had already happened.


    “Pompeo needs to get the remains of the POWs and MIAs [missing in action] but it’s not enough,” Cha said, arguing the secretary of state would have to extract a concrete commitment on disarmament to live up to the administration’s claims for the Singapore summit.


    Topics.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y-us-officials



    Was there ever any doubt this was the way it would go.

  7. #207
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    North Korea making 'rapid' upgrades to nuclear reactor despite summit pledgesMonitoring group says work shows why a denuclearisation deal rather than a ‘statement of lofty goals’ is needed


    Benjamin Haas in Seoul
    North Korea has continued to upgrade its only known nuclear reactor used to fuel its weapons program, satellite imagery has shown, despite ongoing negotiations with the US and a pledge to denuclearise.


    Infrastructure improvements at the Yongbyon nuclear plant are “continuing at a rapid pace”, according to an analysis by monitoring group 38 North of commercial satellite images taken on 21 June.
    The cooling system for the plutonium production reactor has been modified and at least two new non-industrial buildings have been built on the site, possibly for use by visiting officials. A new engineering office building has been completed and construction has continued on support facilities throughout the complex, according to a blog post written by Frank V Pabian, Joseph S Bermudez Jr and Jack Liu.


    The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has committed to “complete denuclearisation” in meetings with Donald Trump and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, but the details of how and when that will happen have not yet been decided. Kim announced earlier this year the the North’s nuclear arsenal and weapons capable of striking the US were complete, and the North closed its only known nuclear test site in May.


    “Infrastructure improvements continue at Yongbyon,” Jenny Town, managing editor of 38 North, wrote on Twitter. “Underscores reason why an actual deal is necessary, not just a statement of lofty goals.”


    The status of various parts of the nuclear complex remains unclear, and experts cautioned linking ongoing improvements to negotiations with the US.


    “Continued work at the Yongbyon facility should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise,” the experts warned. “The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.”


    Despite the lack of clarity on any nuclear deal, South Korea has pushed ahead with diplomatic efforts. The two sides met for military talks this week aimed at restoring communication lines, and railway officials agreed to explore connecting the two countries by rail.


    Checks will begin next month on long-unused lines that once allowed travel across the entire peninsula. Talks began a decade ago, but were suspended amid rising tensions. South Korea already has a gleaming steel and glass station just south of its highly militarised border with the North, with tracks marked for service to the North’s capital, Pyongyang.


    Kim singled out the South’s advanced railway infrastructure during his meeting with Moon in April, acknowledging in a rare admission of weakness that the North lagged far behind its neighbour. But progress on the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions would have to come before any joint rail projects.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...summit-pledges

  8. #208
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    but the details of how and when that will happen have not yet been decided.
    Do you even read your own posts, prior to sending them to TD?

    "Working towards" was the phrase. Not elimination of nuclear power station operations.

    Has ameristan congress etc, passed binding laws supporting goldilocks signed piece of paper? Thought not.

    Or did you assume DPRK would go back to log fires and candles?

    Guarantees from reliable sources are required. Not the signed piece of paper by a here today gone tomorrow, bankrupt.

    Get a grip.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  9. #209
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Or did you assume DPRK would go back to log fires and candles?
    back?


  10. #210
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    ^
    I know in Thailand there is no such concern regarding light pollution, but DPRK has been a world leader in the art of stealth for centuries.

    The one bright spot is the nuclear power station. It is surrounded with security lights. They stop the locals from running cables from their houses.


  11. #211
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Do you even read your own posts, prior to sending them to TD?

    "Working towards" was the phrase. Not elimination of nuclear power station operations.
    Are you under the impression NK has functioning nuclear power stations?

    Has ameristan congress etc, passed binding laws supporting goldilocks signed piece of paper? Thought not.
    I'm pretty sure chump thought fatboy said he would denuclearize and chump believed he would 'keep his word' and begin immediately

    Or did you assume DPRK would go back to log fires and candles?
    back to log fire and candles from what? Most of NK power is hydro generated.

    Guarantees from reliable sources are required. Not the signed piece of paper by a here today gone tomorrow, bankrupt.

    Get a grip.
    it's not the here today gone tomorrow bankrupt that we're talking about though is it.
    He actually DID keep his word and cancelled the war games. I can't imagine how he's taking this news but my guess is he's told his generals to begin planning the next war games.
    “If we stop testing right now we’d have very few cases, if any.” Donald J Trump.

  12. #212
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Are you under the impression NK has functioning nuclear power stations?
    I would suggest DPRK has had functioning Nuclear power stations for some time. One tuned for Electricity rather than fission products may be currently being finished.

    It appears others are equally misinformed?

    You maybe one of those who are "highly likely" to accept some propaganda produced by western sources but not when produced from elsewhere.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_North_Korea#Denuclearization_pled ges

    North Korea nuclear reactors show new signs of activity

    By Tim Lister, CNN

    Updated 8:02 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2018

    "What is unclear at this stage is whether North Korea plans for the reactor to contribute to electricity generation or its weapons program.


    Rob Munks, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review, says the light-water reactor "could be used for civilian electricity generation -- its stated purpose -- or diverted towards the nuclear program."


    The reactor is linked to the power grid. Industry experts say that once operational, the ELWR would be able to produce about 25-30 megawatts, perhaps enough to power a town of some 50,000 inhabitants.


    Munks said, "In theory, if the reactor comes online and if it were diverted towards plutonium and tritium production, it could enable North Korea to expand its stock." By just how much is unclear, he said. Tritium is the most important thermonuclear material for weapons.


    Over the last year Jane's and other research groups have identified increased activity in several parts of the Yongbyon site, 40 miles (75 kilometers) north of Pyongyang. Analysts at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation observed the installation of power lines, a construction and dredging project to supply cooling water to the ELWR and movement of personnel and vehicles.


    Construction of the ELWR was completed in 2013 and is optimized for civilian electricity production, but it has "dual-use" potential and can be modified to produce material for nuclear weapons."

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/03/15/a...ity/index.html



    Jane’s by IHS Markit Discovers Likely Operational Testing at North Korean Nuclear Reactor


    https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...-Testing-North


    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    I'm pretty sure chump thought fatboy said he would denuclearize and chump believed he would 'keep his word' and begin immediately
    Surely you don't believe in fairy tales, or are you suggesting goldilocks does?



    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    He actually DID keep his word and cancelled the war games
    Which as you suggest, and looking at ameristans record, can be reversed in an instant, by it's leader with no safeguards.

    As I suggested credible guarantors are required.

  13. #213
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    I would suggest DPRK has had functioning Nuclear power stations for some time. One tuned for Electricity rather than fission products may be currently being finished.

    It appears others are equally misinformed?

    You maybe one of those who are "highly likely" to accept some propaganda produced by western sources but not when produced from elsewhere.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_North_Korea#Denuclearization_pled ges

    North Korea nuclear reactors show new signs of activity

    By Tim Lister, CNN

    Updated 8:02 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2018

    "What is unclear at this stage is whether North Korea plans for the reactor to contribute to electricity generation or its weapons program.


    Rob Munks, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review, says the light-water reactor "could be used for civilian electricity generation -- its stated purpose -- or diverted towards the nuclear program."


    The reactor is linked to the power grid. Industry experts say that once operational, the ELWR would be able to produce about 25-30 megawatts, perhaps enough to power a town of some 50,000 inhabitants.


    Munks said, "In theory, if the reactor comes online and if it were diverted towards plutonium and tritium production, it could enable North Korea to expand its stock." By just how much is unclear, he said. Tritium is the most important thermonuclear material for weapons.


    Over the last year Jane's and other research groups have identified increased activity in several parts of the Yongbyon site, 40 miles (75 kilometers) north of Pyongyang. Analysts at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation observed the installation of power lines, a construction and dredging project to supply cooling water to the ELWR and movement of personnel and vehicles.


    Construction of the ELWR was completed in 2013 and is optimized for civilian electricity production, but it has "dual-use" potential and can be modified to produce material for nuclear weapons."

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/03/15/a...ity/index.html



    Jane’s by IHS Markit Discovers Likely Operational Testing at North Korean Nuclear Reactor


    https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...-Testing-North




    Surely you don't believe in fairy tales, or are you suggesting goldilocks does?





    Which as you suggest, and looking at ameristans record, can be reversed in an instant, by it's leader with no safeguards.

    As I suggested credible guarantors are required.
    Your link there says exactly what I said. NK doesn't and hasn't used the reactors for generation. Though it potentially Could. So by not turning on the reactors they wouldnt be 'going back' to anything.

    Yes, I believe goldilocks has such a high opinion of himself that he honestly believed fatboy would go away and immediately start denuclearizing, and of courser ANYTHING can be reversed FFS.
    I imagine chump is quite livid. IT'll be interesting to see What develops.

  14. #214
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    Any idea within how many years such de-nuclearization is possible?

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    25 to 30 MW of electricity is a very small amount for a nuclear power station to produce. I'd say the reactor wasn't designed with electricity production in mind. That said, any electricity it produced that was put into the grid would be a benefit, even if such a small amount.

    On that topic, I read recently of interest by foreign countries (Russia and Japan?) about building new power plants in North Korea.

  16. #216
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Yes, I believe goldilocks has such a high opinion of himself that he honestly believed fatboy would go away and immediately start denuclearizing, and of courser ANYTHING can be reversed FFS.
    I imagine chump is quite livid. IT'll be interesting to see What develops.
    Doubt he is livid. Too dumb and arrogant to admit even to himself that fatboy slicked him. Kim is not going to give up his nukes with the promise the US will protect NK's sovereignty. Kim may give up some nuk capability but will make sure he retains enough to protect his regime. 45 already gave away a key bargaining chip by halting the military exercises with SK.

    Kim will get sanctions lifted, remain under the influence of China and US military presence on the peninsula will be reduced or near eliminated.

    Reunification of North and South will take place but doubt the US will play a major role in it happening. China will, along with the North and South Korean governments.

    So far the self proclaimed worlds greatest negotiator has been bettered.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"

  17. #217
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    The reactor is linked to the power grid.
    As it should be, whether or not for exporting electricity. It will need an electricity supply for when the reactor and generators are not producing their own. They could use diesel generators but electricity from the grid is probably a better option.

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    The reactor is linked to the power grid.


    Munks said, "In theory, if the reactor comes online and if it were diverted towards plutonium and tritium production, it could enable North Korea to expand its stock." By just how much is unclear, he said. Tritium is the most important thermonuclear material for weapons.


    Over the last year Jane's and other research groups have identified increased activity in several parts of the Yongbyon site, 40 miles (75 kilometers) north of Pyongyang. Analysts at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation observed the installation of power lines, a construction and dredging project to supply cooling water to the ELWR and movement of personnel and vehicles.


    Construction of the ELWR was completed in 2013 and is optimized for civilian electricity production, but it has "dual-use" potential and can be modified to produce material for nuclear weapons."
    Despite the yellow quote in the last paragraph, the earlier green quotes suggest the reactor has not yet been started and has not produced a single watt of electricity. No cooling water = no steam = no electricity.

  18. #218
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    I suggest that DPRK has had nuclear reactors, if primarily aimed at fissionable material production. As such I would assume the reactors would be able and "highly likely" to have produced electricity. But it may be "highly likely" it is impossible to produce fissionable material and electricity at the same time.

    Do we have any members here with such expertise?

  19. #219
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    No shit sherlock.


    Trump: 'possible' North Korea nuclear deal may not 'work out'
    President tells Fox he did not make concessions to Kim Jong-un
    Trump in fact agreed to end military exercises with South Korea
    Donald Trump said on Sunday it was “possible” that a deal he claimed ended the nuclear threat posed by North Korea would not “work out”.




    North Korea still secretly enriching uranium, say US officials
    Read more
    A day after it was reported that Pyongyang has increased its production of enriched uranium at secret sites, Fox Business broadcast an interview with the president.


    Trump was pressed on whether he trusted Kim Jong-un, whom he met last month in Singapore and with whom he said he had “a great chemistry”, to make good on promises to destroy Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
    “I made a deal with him, I shook hands with him, I really believe he means it,” said Trump.
    “Now, is it possible? Have I been in deals, have you been in things where, people didn’t work out? It’s possible.”


    Trump’s words reversed his declaration upon his return from Singapore that North Korea had ended its nuclear ambitons.

    “Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” the president tweeted on 13 June. “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!”

    Speaking to Fox, Trump also sought to shrink the perceived cost of the declared agreement falling through, seeking to frame his negotiations with North Korea as having been achieved without concessions.
    “We gave nothing,” he said
    . “Think of this. What did I do, really, when you think of it? I went there. So the papers say, ‘He went’, oh, meaning I went to Singapore. So we had a meeting. We didn’t do anything.”

    In fact, Trump agreed to end a range of joint military exercises with South Korea,
    meant to act as a deterrent against the North. In the interview with Fox, he said the exercises, “which I call war games”, were too expensive.
    “They’re dropping bombs all over the place every six months,” he said, “it’s unbelievably expensive to do that. The planes fly in from Guam, these massive bombers. It’s crazy.”
    Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, insisted that North Korea’s nuclear program could still be dismantled within a year.
    NBC News and the Washington Post reported that North Korean attempts to conceal nuclear work. Earlier this week, the monitoring group 38 North reported that North Korea had made rapid improvements to a nuclear reactor.
    Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Bolton said he did not want to comment on the reports or on “anything related to intelligence” – NBC having quoted more than a dozen senior US intelligence officials and the Post four.
    Bolton said Trump was not being played by Kim and was “very well aware of North Korea’s patterns of behaviour over decades of negotiating with the United States”.
    He said: “We know exactly what the risks are of them using negotiations to drag out the length of time they have to continue their nuclear chemical biological weapons programs and ballistic missiles.”
    But, he added, Kim had been “very emphatic several times in Singapore he was different from prior regimes”.
    “We have developed a program,” Bolton said, “…about really how to dismantle all of their WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programmes in a year”.
    “If they have the strategic decision already made to do that and they’re cooperative, we can move very quickly.
    “And it’s to North Korea’s advantage to see these programs dismantled very quickly because then the elimination of sanctions aid by South Korea and Japan and others can all begin to flow.”
    Secretary of state Mike Pompeo is due to meet Kim in early July. South Korean media reported on Sunday that Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, held preparatory talks with North Korean officials in the village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone.
    A leading Senate foreign policy hawk, meanwhile, took a less diplomatic tone. Interviewed on NBC’s Meet the Press, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said North Korea would “regret it” if nuclear talks collapsed.
    “I don’t want a war with North Korea,” Graham said. “The last best chance to avoid that war is a peaceful end to their nuclear program … if they don’t take it, and they play Trump like they’ve played everybody else, they’re going to regret it.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y-not-work-out

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    I hope Trump gets those war games on again.

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    That's up to fatboy.

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    Mike Pompeo holds nuclear talks with North Korean officials in PyongyangSecretary of state predicts ‘productive’ meeting on his third visit, joking: ‘If I come one more time, I will have to pay taxes here’
    Sat 7 Jul 2018 04.30 BST First published on Thu 5 Jul 2018 05.35 BST
    Talks between senior US and North Korean officials in Pyongyang over disarmament and improving bilateral relations entered a second day on Saturday with a testy exchange between the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo and his counterpart, Kim Yong-chol.
    Pompeo and a US delegation are in North Korea in an effort to persuade the regime to take concrete steps that Donald Trump claimed he was promised by Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June. He has said the North Korean leader said he would destroy a missile engine testing site and then organise the repatriation of remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean war. Pompeo is also asking for more substantial steps towards disarmament, reportedly including an inventory of the North Korean arsenal of warheads and missiles.

    Early on Saturday morning, Pompeo left the Pyongyang guesthouse where the US delegation is staying to make a call through secure communications to Trump at his New Jersey golf club. The national security advisor, John Bolton, and the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, also took part in the call.
    Pompeo briefed them on his initial round of talks on Friday with Kim Yong-chol, a former spy chief and vice chair of the ruling party. As well as a working session on Friday, the two men had dinner, which the state department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, described as “relationship building”. Nauert said that at times they were “cracking jokes” and “exchanging pleasantries.”
    She said that progress had been made in Friday’s discussions, adding that the talks had covered the process of denuclearisation and the repatriation of American remains. She added: “we expect them to live up to their commitments.” The two also established working groups to deal with what Nauert described as the “nitty gritty stuff” of outstanding issues between the two countries.


    She said Pompeo had been “very firm” in seeking three basic goals: complete denuclearization of North Korea, security assurances, and the repatriation of remains.
    When Pompeo returned to the guesthouse after phoning on Saturday, Kim asked Pompeo how he had slept, adding: “we did have very serious discussion on very important matters yesterday. So thinking about those discussions you might have not slept well last night.”
    “Director Kim I slept just fine,” Pompeo replied. He went on to point the importance of their task of implementing what Trump and Kim agreed in Singapore and set off on the “the path toward complete denuclearisation”.
    “Of course it is important,” Kim said, but added: “There are things that I have to clarify.”

    Pompeo replied: “There are things that I have to clarify as well.”
    The secretary of state is under time pressure to produce results by August, when the US and South Korea were due to hold joint military exercises. Those exercises were cancelled on Trump’s orders in Singapore as an up-front concession. Adding to the pressure, the president has repeatedly claimed that the testing site has already been destroyed, and that the soldiers’ remains have been sent back, neither of which has happened.
    Trump has also made extravagant claims about what was agreed in Singapore. At a rally in Montana on Thursday, he claimed: “We signed a wonderful paper saying they’re going to denuclearise their whole thing. It’s going to all happen.”
    In a joint statement with Trump, Kim agreed to move towards “complete denuclearisation” but that has been a stock phrase in North Korean rhetoric since 1992 and signifies a vague and long-term process of multilateral disarmament on the Korean peninsula. Since the Singapore meeting, satellite images and intelligence leaks have suggested that North Korea is upgrading critical parts of its nuclear programme.

    “Our leaders made commitments at the Singapore summit on the complete denuclearisation of North Korea and outlined what a transformed US-DPRK relationship could look like,” Pompeo said on his way to Pyongyang.
    “Since the summit the consultations have continued. On this trip I’m seeking to fill in some details on those commitments and continue the momentum toward implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world. I expect that the DPRK [North Korea] is ready to do the same.”
    Even while Pompeo has been in Pyongyang, new satellite pictures were published by the website 38 North, showing work had been completed on the cooling plant for a new nuclear reactor.
    Unnamed US intelligence officials also concluded that North Korea does not intend to completely give up its nuclear stockpile.
    In Pyongyang on Friday, Pompeo met Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s former spy chief and vice-chair of the ruling party, in an extensive guest house in Pyongyang, close to a vast mausoleum where North Korea’s former leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, are buried.
    Welcoming Pompeo and the US team to the first session of talks, Kim Yong-chol, said: “The more you come, more trust we can build between one another.”
    “Today’s meeting is a really meaningful meeting,” the 73-year-old general said.
    Pompeo replied: “Yes, I agree I look forward to it and I count on it being very productive.”
    Noting it was his third visit to Pyongyang, he joked: “If I come one more time, I will have to pay taxes here.”
    Earlier, Pompeo laughed but did not reply to a question about a South Korean report that he had brought a CD of Elton John’s Rocket Man, as a gift for Kim Jong-un. “Rocket Man” was the nickname Trump gave to Kim when tensions between the two countries reached a peak last year.
    The meeting lasted two hours and 45 minutes and Pompeo then had dinner with his senior aides. The next session is due to start at 9am. It is unclear whether Pompeo will meet Kim Jong-un on this trip.
    There were reports before Pompeo began his visit, that he might relax the US demand for complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament (CVID), and settle for mutual confidence-building measures that defused tensions without dismantling the North Korean arsenal.
    His spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, denied those reports on Thursday, saying: “Nothing could be further from the truth. Our policy toward North Korea has not changed.
    “We are committed to a denuclearised North Korea and Secretary Pompeo looks forward to continuing his consultations with North Korean leaders to follow up on the commitments made at the Singapore summit,” Nauert added.
    However, she did explain why Pompeo and other US officials had stopped using the CVID formulation in their remarks.


    Pompeo will also use his trip to consult and reassure Washington’s allies in the region, with meetings planned with Japanese and South Korean officials in Tokyo on Sunday. Japan has voiced support for the leaders’ Singapore declaration, but reacted cautiously to Trump’s decision to cancel joint military exercises.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...clear-progress
    Last edited by Cujo; 08-07-2018 at 01:10 PM.

  24. #224
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    Gotta laugh. Chump really thought he had some kind of gentleman's agreement on a handshake.
    North Korea accuses US of 'gangster-like' behavior after Pompeo talksPyongyang says Washington is betraying spirit of historic Trump-Kim summit with demands on complete denuclearization


    Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, arrives in Tokyo after two days of meetings with Kim Yong-chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official
    Mike Pompeo said his conversations with a senior North Korean official had been ‘productive’. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
    North Korea has said that high-level talks with a US delegation led by Mike Pompeo were regrettable and accused Washington of trying to unilaterally pressurise the country into abandoning its nuclear weapons.


    The North’s statement came on Saturday, hours after the US secretary of state wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials without meeting Kim Jong-un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearisation and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean war.


    Before leaving Pyongyang, Pompeo told reporters that his conversations with senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol had been productive, conducted in good faith and that a great deal of progress had been made in some areas. He stressed there was still more work to be done in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides had set up to deal with specific issues.


    The North provided a much harsher assessment of the talks. In a statement released by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman, Pyongyang accused the US of betraying the spirit of last month’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim by making “one-sided and gangster-like” demands on “CVID” – the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.
    It said the outcome of the follow-up talks was very concerning because it had led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearisation that had been firm”.
    “We had expected that the US side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders’ summit … we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures,” said the statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.


    “However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting [between the countries] was no doubt regrettable,” the spokesman said. “Our expectations and hopes were so naive it could be called foolish.”


    According to the spokesman, during the talks with Pompeo, North Korea raised the issue of a possible declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean war, which concluded with an armistice and not a peace treaty. It also offered to discuss the closure of a missile engine test site that would “physically affirm” a move to halt the production of intercontinental range ballistic missiles and setting up working-level discussions for the return of US war remains.




    However, the spokesman said the US had come up with a variety of “conditions and excuses” to delay a declaration on ending the war. The spokesman also downplayed the significance of the US suspending its military exercises with South Korea, saying the North had made a larger concession by blowing up the tunnels at its nuclear test site.


    In criticising the talks with Pompeo, however, North Korea carefully avoided attacking Trump, saying “we wholly maintain our trust toward President Trump,” but also that Washington must not allow “headwinds” against the “wills of the leaders”.


    Pompeo said a Pentagon team would be meeting North Korean officials on or about 12 July at the border between North and South Korea to discuss the repatriation of remains and that working-level talks would be held soon on the destruction of North Korea’s missile engine testing facility.


    In the days following his historic 12 June summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, Trump had announced that the return of the remains and the destruction of the missile facility had been completed or were in progress. Pompeo, however, said more talks were needed on both.


    “We now have a meeting set up for 12 July. It could move by one day or two where there will be discussions between the folks responsible for the repatriation of remains. [It] will take place at the border and that process will begin to develop over the days that follow,” he said as he boarded a plane for Tokyo.


    Earlier, Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol both said they needed clarity on the parameters of an agreement to denuclearise the Korean peninsula that Trump and the North Korean leader had agreed to in Singapore. The trip was Pompeo’s third to Pyongyang since April and his first since the summit.


    Unlike his previous visits, which have been one-day affairs during which he has met Kim Jong-un, Pompeo spent the night at a government guesthouse in Pyongyang and did not see the North Korean leader, although US officials had suggested such a meeting was expected. The state department spokeswoman,Heather Nauert, said no meeting with Kim had been planned.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ks-regrettable

  25. #225
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Chump really thought he had some kind of gentleman's agreement on a handshake.
    A known, ameristani, bankrupt's handshake or spoken words, get real. Maybe tinsel town would, but then they also use horses heads as gentle reminders and Tommy guns as final offers.

    goldilocks's pronouncements from high, are accepted as international, UNSC backed, worldwide treaties. To question them is an act of war and will be answered accordingly.

    He makes demands but accepts cents on the dollar, like most liars used to being involved in bankruptcy multiple times.

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