TRUMP AGAIN FAWNS OVER THE BRUTAL NORTH KOREAN DICTATOR

…Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.  Another failed Summit meeting.

Trump once again believes the dictator over reality

It’s become just a standard mode of communication for the US President to make a statement that is not completely true.

This latest one is about the abrupt ending of the summit meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.

Trump says the fundamental disagreement rested on the trade-offs between the United States dropping all of the sanctions and of North Korea’s steps to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.

Trump said the main impediment to a deal was Kim’s requirement that the “United States lift all economic sanctions on North Korea.“  This was proposed in exchange for the closure of only one nuclear facility, which still would have left Pyongyang with a large arsenal of missiles and warheads.  It has been said for months that there is no way that the Kim regime will give up their nukes.  It’s the only reason that anyone pays attention to North Korea.

As usual, Trump did little preparation for this so called “Summit”, and the two leaders and their delegations departed the meeting site in Vietnam’s capital without sitting for a planned lunch or participating in what was originally a scheduled signing ceremony.

The reason I said that Trump once again gave us a statement that was another lie, is that the North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, later offered a different take on Trump’s statement at a rare NK news conference.  Ri argued that Kim’s regime sought only “partial” sanctions relief in return for dismantling the North’s main enrichment capabilities for fissile material.

North Korea’s foreign minister said the North had sought an end only to “sanctions that hamper the civilian economy, and the livelihood of all NK people in particular,” citing five out of 11 sanctions packages imposed by the UN Security Council.

While it was not for total sanctions relief, it would have amounted to a significant easing of the pressure on North Korea’s citizens, but not the leadership.

Once again, Trump’s Art of the Deal approach caused the meeting to fall apart.  Trump’s idea is to never compromise.  According to Trump’s famous sales training book, he says to “Just keep going after what you want until the other party gives in to your demands….period!

Although Trump has pointed to a moratorium on NK testing that has been in place since November 2017, US intelligence officials say North Korea has continued to develop its weapons programs while publicly engaging with the United States and South Korea in these denuclearization talks.

However, the ending of the meeting was just one of the serious issues from the event.

Things really went downhill when Trump was asked by a reporter whether he had discussed with Kim the case of Otto Warmbier.  Otto was the University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea for 17 months for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster.  This was the young student that the North Koreans had tortured, and then returned him to the US where he went into a coma, and died.  Trump did say that he had discussed this with Kim.

After two days of meetings with Kim at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel, as usual, Trump continued to praise Kim. He called him a great leader and boasted about the warmth of their friendship.

Of course, Trump did not address Kim’s record of brutality and human rights atrocities.

But when asked about Warmbier, at a news conference before heading home, Trump condemned the “brutality of the North Korean regime” following Warmbier’s death at age 22.  However, the president made clear he didn’t hold Kim personally accountable, “I don’t believe he would have allowed that to happen,” Trump said. “It just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that to happen.”

Trump said that he spoke to Kim about the death of Warmbier and that Kim “feels badly about it.”  Trump had the gall to say that the North Korean leader knew about the case, but had learned about it only after the fact.  Trump suggested, “top leadership” might not have been involved.  Nothing goes on in North Korea, especially with a detained American, that the leadership is not fully aware.  Trump once again believed the strongman dictator over his own intelligence personnel.

Fortunately, a number of those lawmakers in Washington had something to say about Trump’s comments about another brutal dictator, and they weren’t all Democrats.

Speaking as Trump headed home from the two-day summit with Kim in Hanoi, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said he continues to see North Korea as “an evil regime.”

“I think it starts at the top,” Portman said. “And I think we have to acknowledge that as we deal with them.”

Portman, was close to Warmbier’s family in Ohio and he fought for his release.  Asked if Trump should trust Kim, Portman said, “I think we should verify whatever we hear from [Kim] independently.”

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also counseled caution on trusting Kim.  “I do not see the leader of North Korea as somebody who’s a friend,” McCarthy said. “We know what happened to Otto. We know what this country has done. I support the president in his effort to denuclearize them, but I do not have a misbelief of who this leader is.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been a staunch Trump ally on many issues, said he didn’t “buy it for a minute” that Kim had nothing to do with Warmbier’s treatment. He suggested Trump was “probably trying to leave some space to negotiate” on broader issues with Kim by saying he trusted his statement.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was “surprised that [Trump] accepted at face value, apparently, what happened to the American who was held there.”

During floor remarks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) praised Trump’s performance in Hanoi, but he made no mention of Warmbier.

Senator Tim Kaine said Trump has repeatedly accepted the word of “dictators,” like Russian President Vladimir Putin or Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“I can only imagine how it felt for the Warmbier family to have the President defend Kim Jong Un,” Kaine said in a statement. “Why would you not go to bat for an American family of this American student who was so brutalized by the North Korean regime?”

Taking to Twitter, Senator Mark Warner wrote that “Otto Warmbier’s bogus arrest and brutal murder was an international incident.  Of course, Kim knew about it,” Warner wrote. “Apparently, the President of the United States is the only one who believes this obvious lie.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she considered it “strange” that Trump continued to assert he believes “thugs” such as Kim and Putin.

The No. 2 House Democratic leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (MD), said he was “concerned” that Trump took Kim “at his word when he claimed innocence in the brutal death” of Warmbier.  “Such statements dishonor this young man’s memory and cause further pain to his grieving family,” Hoyer said in a statement.

Trump is being laughed at by every authoritarian leader in the world, from Vladimir Putin of Russia, to Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines; Recep Erdoğan of Turkey; MBS of Saudi Arabia and finally to President Xi of China.

Fortunately, our president isn’t with us forever.  But it is expected that if Trump should run and lose in 2020, he will claim that the election is totally rigged and he will promote violence from his supporters, just wait and see.  Trump loves strongarm violence.

That's the kind of president we have.

Copyright G. Ater 2019