CNN (May 2)
President Trump said “that he would be ‘honored’ to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances, the latest in a series of odd moves that suggest Trump may still not grasp the power and signal-sending of such a gathering.” Meeting with Kim Jong Un, the Philippines’ Duterte or other dictators creates the wrong optics. “The visuals are all to the good for these men. It puts them on equal footing with the leader of the most powerful nation in the world…. It’s odd that someone as image conscious as Trump doesn’t get that.”
Tags: Dictator, Duterte, Image conscious, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Optics, Philippines, Trump
The Week (April 19)
“President Trump thinks he has worked out a magnificent ‘deal’ with China.” In reality, “Trump is being played like a fiddle by Chinese President Xi Jinping.” China will be unable to place much additional pressure on North Korea. In return for nothing, “Trump has decided to drop one of the few good ideas of his campaign: renegotiating our trade deal with China so it’s better for the U.S.”
Tags: China, Deal, North Korea, Renegotiating, Trade deal, Trump, U.S., Xi
Washington Post (April 18)
“Remember that U.S. aircraft carrier that was headed to the Korean Peninsula as both the Trump administration and North Korea began to talk tough with one another? It turns out it wasn’t…. Despite talk of a military strike, Trump’s ‘armada’ actually sailed away from Korea.”
New York Times (April 17)
Donald Trump is finally paying attention to North Korea, “but not in a helpful way. His intemperate talk is adding to regional tensions, unnerving allies and likely reinforcing North Korea’s longstanding fear that it could one day be attacked by America.” Trump should avoid letting “overconfidence and bombast, expressed in tweets and public statements, box him into some kind of showdown with the North’s ruthless leader, Kim Jong-un, who has displayed similarly macho traits.”
Tags: Allies, Fear, Intemperate, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Overconfidence, Regional tension, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (March 30)
“The biggest challenge for the National Security Council isn’t North Korea or Russia. It’s Trump.”
Tags: Challenge, National Security Council, North Korea, Russia, Trump, U.S.
Fortune (February 19)
“China just took a big swing at North Korea’s economy.” By banning coal imports from North Korea for the remainder of 2017, China is stepping on its “financial lifeline.” Coal is North Korea’s “single largest export item.” The move “could help put international sanctions aimed at North Korea’s nuclear weapons efforts into fuller force.”
Tags: China, Coal imports, Economy, Exports, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Sanctions
US News & World Report (January 17)
“Kim Jong Un may try to accelerate the timetable. North Korea’s growing strategic capabilities suggest that Washington – which has long chosen to ignore and minimize the problem posed by Pyongyang – will need to come up with a serious strategy to deal with the DPRK, and do so sooner rather than later.
Tags: Accelerate, Capabilities, DPRK, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Pyongyang, Strategy, Timetable
Wall Street Journal (December 28)
“For two decades top U.S. officials from both parties—Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and others—have believed that the North could be bought off, or that China could be cajoled to rein in its client in Pyongyang. These views have proven to be badly mistaken, and the world is far more dangerous as a result.”
Chicago Tribune (September 9)
“The North’s boast of a technologically game-changing nuclear test defies both tough international sanctions and long-standing diplomatic pressure to curb its nuclear ambitions. It will raise serious worries in many world capitals that Pyongyang has moved another step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the U.S. mainland.”
Tags: Diplomatic pressure, Game changing, Missile, North Korea, Nuclear test, Pyongyang, Sanctions, Technology, U.S.
New York Times (July 10)
“The new American sanctions on North Korea are hardly surprising, since the regime brutally controls 25 million people, has an aggressive nuclear program and is improving its ability to launch missiles that could one day hit the United States.” Whether the sanctions can “make North Korea budge” remains to be seen.
Tags: Aggressive, Brutal, Launch, Missiles, North Korea, Nuclear program, Regime, Sanctions, U.S.
