Excuse Me But Do We Have A Really Big North Korea Problem?

There was an article that suggested that North Korea has continued to build missiles and create new missile sites where they can be stored on vehicles and moved at the time decided upon by Kim Jong Un. Then there was a tweet by Trump:

“The story in the New York Times concerning North Korea developing missile bases is inaccurate. We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new – and nothing happening out of the normal. Just more Fake News. I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!”

Trump saying that it was fake news but that he “will be the first to let you know if things go bad!” seemed to me that the news was not fake. Add to that after calling the news “inaccurate” he says he knows all about sites. How does that make it inaccurate? He added on top of it that it was normal and nothing new. How could it be? Aren’t the North Koreans supposed to be doing away with their missile program rather than expanding it?

Here’s an article that tells of Trump’s folly in tweeting that response. It notes: “abundant evidence shows that North Korea continues to develop its ballistic missile-plus-nuclear-warhead capabilities. These efforts go beyond what the New York Times reported. . . . “  The writer who supports Trump suggests that his laissez faire attitude will be interpreted by Kim that he can keep going with his programs and will tell Russian and China they can continue disregarding the sanctions they agreed to impose. He says Trump is sending the message to Kim:  “please play me.”

A follow up article tells us that according to some experts unlike what we have been told there has been no agreement on nuclear weapons or missiles but there has been an agreement to talk about it. Kim made a New Year’s speech at the beginning of this year He said: “This year, we should focus on mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment.”  Duyeon Kim who works at an American think-tank said: “Kim proclaimed that they no longer need to test parts anymore and will just mass-produce weapons.”

Another expert said, “Kim hasn’t broken any promises. Instead, he’s making good on one of them — to mass-produce nuclear weapons.” A professor at Dartmouth who deals with nuclear proliferation matters tweeted: “Today, the NYT published a piece detailing North Korea’s continued nuclear advances and the IAEA declared that Iran is complying with JCPOA limits. Yet the Trump administration acts as though NK is disarming and Iran is racing to the bomb. This is the exact opposite of reality.” An expert added: “Trump seems not to understand that he did not negotiate a ‘deal’ in Singapore. He negotiated only an ‘intent to negotiate.’”

I don’t know about you but it is hard to believe that is the case. Hasn’t Trump told us that Kim agreed to give up his nukes. Hasn’t Trump told us that North Korea not having launched any missiles or nuclear tests was a sign North Korea was preparing to disarm. The idea that is not the case is disheartening. To think Trump knows they have been perfecting their missiles and nukes to make them better able to reach our shores but has been quiet about it I’d suggest puts our nation at risk.

Unfortunately, Trump is all show and tweets. He unwisely criticized all prior presidents for not stopping North Korea and came out of the Singapore conference touting his success noting how others had failed. Sure they failed but they did not hide their failure and pretend they didn’t. It looks like Trump has failed but he won’t publicly recognize that.

He now has two choices: to continue to cover-up his failure which will require him to shut his eyes to North Korean actions and accede ever more to Kim’s demands endangering America; or to publicly recognize he’s been duped and take drastic measures. It’s an uncomfortable feeling seeing what has been happening. I can’t see anything good coming out of it.