Images temper Trump’s summit triumph
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2018 (2681 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Oh, dear. Is it possible the Dealmaker-in-Chief got fleeced?
Much was said, mostly of a complimentary and comforting nature, by U.S. President Donald Trump after this month’s summit meeting in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“A very talented man,” was one of the ways Mr. Trump described the Supreme Leader after his one-day encounter; also in the list of effusives was the observation that Mr. Kim “loves his country very much.”
The president also took great pains to let Americans know their leader had, by extracting denuclearization promises from Mr. Kim, made the planet a safer place. “The World has taken a big step back from potential Nuclear catastrophe!” Mr. Trump tweeted after the meeting, adding in a separate post, “Thank you to Chairman Kim, our day together was historic!”
And just to finally put his great achievement, as they say, to bed, the president ended his post-summit Twitter fusillade by telling Americans, “President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!”
If this week’s news reports from the Korean peninsula are any indication, perhaps Mr. Trump should tell his citizenry it’s time to “wakey wakey.”
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that satellite imagery of a North Korean nuclear research site shows improvements progressing at a rapid pace. The images were provided by 38 North, a group that closely monitors North Korean activities. The group said the operational status of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre remains unclear, but added that the infrastructure improvements detected in the images allow 38 North to conclude that uranium enrichment appears to be in progress.
The images were captured on June 21, nine days after Mr. Kim signed a declaration to “denuclearize” after the Singapore summit with Mr. Trump.
The 38 North report also states that ongoing work on nuclear facilities would necessarily be directed by North Korean leadership: “The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.”
The report might make for interesting conversation if U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo follows through on his stated intention to travel to Pyongyang for the first high-level meetings with the North Korean regime since the Trump-Kim summit.
That Mr. Kim might renege on a nuclear-disarmament promise should come as a surprise to no one in the international community. Misdirection, aggression and brinksmanship have been the hallmarks of North Korea’s posturing as Mr. Kim pushed relentlessly to add his tiny nation to the ranks of nuclear weapons-armed global powers.
Misdirection, aggression and brinksmanship have been the hallmarks of North Korea’s posturing as Mr. Kim pushed relentlessly to add his tiny nation to the ranks of nuclear weapons-armed global powers.
Mr. Trump, whose affinity for dictators and autocrats has also seen him heap legitimizing praise on the likes of Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin while hurling insults at supposed democratic allies such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, might be forced to reconsider the triumph of his Singaporean handshake-and-smile session.
Perhaps North Korea’s stint on Mr. Trump’s BFF list will be short-lived, and resumed rhetoric aimed at “Little Rocket Man” will bring nuclear tensions back up to the boil.
Then again, there’s every chance Mr. Trump will dismiss 38 North’s detailed satellite-image analysis as just another “fake news” annoyance, in an outright rejection of any notion that he, the master of The Art of the Deal, has been duped by a diminutive despot.
One might be inclined to think Mr. Kim will be further emboldened by either outcome.
