Wall Street Journal (March 27)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid a surprise visit to China this week, in his first known foreign trip since taking power in late 2011.” With upcoming U.S. and South Korean summits approaching, “analysts say the trip appears to be an effort to mend fences with Beijing, as Washington stakes out a tougher line on denuclearization talks planned for May.”
Tags: Analyst, China, Denuclearization, Kim, North Korea, South Korea, Summits, U.S.
USA Today (March 8)
“Chances are slim that anything has changed, but Trump is right to agree to meet. We have to talk.” Still, “most of this seems to be too good to be true…. Trump is to be credited for his effective international sanctions campaign against North Korea, but it is very hard to believe that it has brought Pyongyang to its knees so quickly. Nor is it credible that Kim has turned into a nice guy so fast.”
Chicago Tribune (February 7)
A shadow is hanging over the Olympiad, which “is set against the looming menace posed by one of the world’s most dangerous regimes — North Korea. Whether Pyongyang and the U.S. continue to trade threats of nuclear destruction is a challenge for politicians, diplomats and military strategists.”
Tags: Dangerous, Looming, Menace, North Korea, Nuclear destruction, Olympiad, Regime, Shadow, Threats, U.S.
Harvard Gazette (January 18)
“What’s new in the current phase of the ongoing North Korean nuclear crisis is the Kim regime’s early stage capability to put the continental U.S. at risk…. North Korea is no longer viewed mainly as a threat to U.S. allies and interests in Northeast Asia. If diplomatic efforts collapse, we’re likely to see a dramatic increase in U.S. military pressure on North Korea, with the goal of compelling the regime to rapidly denuclearize.”
Tags: Allies, Capability, Continental U.S., Denuclearize, Diplomatic efforts, Kim, Military pressure, North Korea, Northeast Asia, Nuclear crisis, Regime, Risk, Threat
Washington Post (January 3)
“At this moment in time, Kim Jong Un is acting like a more mature person than the president of the United States…. It looks more and more dubious that Trump’s national security advisers know how to persuade him not to stumble his way into a conflict with North Korea. And Trump’s inability to coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons will only cause him to make even more outlandish threats.”
Tags: Advisers, Conflict, Kim, Mature, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Outlandish, Stumble, Threats, U.S.
Toronto Sun (November 27)
“It’s an odd notion: Canada works with Cuba to get them to work with North Korea to get them, in turn, to work with the United States on cooling their nuclear ambitions. But it’s a worthwhile approach… While there’s not a whole lot Canada can do, it’s good that Trudeau’s serious about at least doing what we can.”
Tags: Canada, Cuba, North Korea, Trudeau, U.S., Worthwhile
Time (November 22)
“The defection, subsequent surgeries and slow recovery of the soldier have riveted South Korea, but it will be a huge embarrassment for the North, which claims all defections are the result of rival Seoul kidnapping or enticing North Koreans to defect. Pyongyang has said nothing about the defection so far.”
Tags: Defection, Defections, Embarrassment, Kidnapping, North Korea, Recovery, Soldier, South Korea, Surgeries
Bloomberg (November 6)
With the U.S. “hobbled by Trump,” China clearly has the “upper hand” in the upcoming negotiations. The stakes are potentially “huge, including the threat of nuclear conflict in North Korea,” as Trump sits down with China’s President Xi. The situation reminds many of 1961, when JFK was outmaneuvered by Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. “Today’s two superpowers are coming from different directions. President Xi, consolidating his hold, probably is the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.” Meanwhile, the American president heads a new administration “beset by chaos.”000
Tags: 1961, Chaos, China, Hobbled, JFK, Khrushchev, Mao, Negotiations, North Korea, Nuclear conflict, Stakes, Superpowers, Threat, Trump, U.S., Vienna, Xi
Bloomberg (October 18)
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is only 33, which explains a lot. Exile isn’t a realistic option. “Kim needs strategies for hanging on to power for 50 years or more. That’s a tall order, but it helps us understand that his apparently crazy tactics are probably driven by some very reasonable calculations, albeit selfish and evil ones.”
Tags: Crazy, Evil, Exile, Kim, North Korea, Reasonable, Selfish, Tactics
Washington Post (September 27)
Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have “escalated from a game of blind man’s bluff to a drag race of nuclear chicken,” with the fate of the Pacific resting on the whims of “Rocket Man” and President “Dotard.” This is how things go “in Toontown, where two of the planet’s most unstable state actors call each other names and spin the roulette wheel toward nukes and annihilation.” What else is there to do, but “pray that we and the planet survive the Dotard and the Rocket Man?”
Tags: Annihilation, Fate, North Korea, Nuclear chicken, Pacific, Pray, President Dotard, Rocket Man, Roulette, Survive, Tensions, U.S., Unstable, Whims
