North Korea suspending missile testing and closing nuclear site; Trump the statesman?

[HMS_Irruncible]

@Bijou_Drains

90 minutes left of Christmas in N. Korea. I guess they probably want to do whatever they plan to do during the day here in the US.

Not terribly surprising… like most Asian countries, Christmas has no real significance. However, New Years is a really important holiday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the fireworks are scheduled on/around that time.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Bijou_Drains

Experts say Little rocket man never halted efforts to build new weapons

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/north-korea-never-halted-efforts-to-build-powerful-new-weapons-experts-say/2019/12/23/a820327e-259d-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html

Duh. Only a fucking idiot would have thought they were actually stopping those efforts.

[Fear_Itself]

@HMS_Irruncible

Not terribly surprising… like most Asian countries, Christmas has no real significance. However, New Years is a really important holiday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the fireworks are scheduled on/around that time.

Is Korean New Years on January 1? The Chinese New Year is in the spring I believe.

HLMGTFY:

Saturday, January 25 is Korean New Year in South Korea. I don’t see anything different for North Korea.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@Fear_Itself

Is Korean New Years on January 1? The Chinese New Year is in the spring I believe.

Korea celebrates both the lunar new year and the Gregorian new year. Gregorian New Year (January 1) is on the List of public holidays in North Korea. It’s not the most important holiday, but it’s infinitely more important than Christmas.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@wguy123

“The relapse of the dotage of a dotard” is Trump in a nutshell.

I think of this poor translator a lot. He can’t tell the boss that he wrote this viral ad copy that’s catching on like wildfire, and is actually very good work, because he’d have to admit it’s unintentional humor from not doing his job very well.

[Bijou_Drains]

As I mentioned I think they had tech problems that prevented the Christmas surprise. Rather than have a firm deadline they likely will wait until they think the rocket is good to go.

[asahi]

I wouldn’t read too much into the fact that the Christmas present hasn’t arrived yet. There may well have been technical problems, but another (I think likelier) possibility is that they want to make sure that they’re ready to show it off, whatever it is. They don’t want to be embarrassed. NK also probably wanted to hold off until the end of the year.

[Horatius]

@asahi

Meanwhile, Trump’s subdued reaction was priceless.

“Maybe it’s a vase”

Hell, his reaction - the same expression that he had on his face when he walked out with Putin in Helsinki - gives himself away. You can tell that even he knows he’s bullshitting himself and has no idea what he’s doing or talking about.

If I was Kim, I’d be commissioning a vase with a mushroom cloud on the side of it right now.
But, I’m not, so this is what Kim is doing:

Kim Jong Un warns hostile US policy means there will never be denuclearization on Korean Peninsula

[Mijin]

My youtube feed for some reason was showing me news shows that were over a year old (:smack:) and it was funny to hear many of Trump’s defenders pivoting from whatever terrible thing Trump had done that day by invoking “C’mon people, how can you criticize him for corruption / ripping up alliances / lying like a 5 year old? He’s achieved peace on the Korean peninsula!!”

Now that we’re essentially back to square one I’m sure those people will now freely criticize trump, and not find other things to pivot to.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Trump’s progress on North Korea’s denuclearization is nothing short of amazing! By which I mean: things have gotten worse, not better and North Korea has successfully flipped the conversation: North Korea says US clearly doesn’t want nuclear talks.

North Korea said Monday that “reckless remarks” by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made it clear that Washington has no intention of resuming nuclear talks, and warned that it is now compelled to pay back “the pains the U.S. has imposed on our people.”

After a teleconference of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations last week, Pompeo told reporters the international community must remain united in urging North Korea to return to nuclear talks and in continuing to apply pressure on its nuclear and missile programs.

Pompeo’s remarks showed the U.S. has no strategy to stop “a countdown of confrontation,” North Korea said in a statement attributed to its new Foreign Ministry department director general in charge of negotiations with Washington.

The statement said Pompeo’s comments “seriously impaired the signboard of dialogue put up by the U.S. president as a decoy to buy time and create the environment favorable for himself.” It referred to a recent personal letter that President Donald Trump sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which North Korea said was aimed at maintaining good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The statement did not say what action North Korea would take. But it said it would be designed to repay the U.S. for suffering it has inflicted on North Korea, in an apparent reference to U.S.-led sanctions that the North says have stifled its economy.

[DinoR]

@Snowboarder_Bo

By which I mean: things have gotten worse, not better and North Korea has successfully flipped the conversation:

The statements you quoted seem pretty routine for our relations with North Korea, not worse.

It is a little early in the year. They are just coming off their major winter training cycle and are at a peak for readiness. They usually wait until the early spring planting is complete before really ramping up their rhetoric. The army usually has to send troops to help with that. On the other hand if the pandemic is really biting they might be willing to risk it while we are clearly distracted. Focusing on the foreign enemy when there is an internal threat and instability is pretty normal.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

North Korea fires barrage of missiles from ground and air.

A barrage of North Korean missiles fired from both the ground and fighter jets splashed down on the waters off the country’s east coast on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, a show of force on the eve of a key state anniversary in the North and parliamentary elections in the rival South.

The back-to-back launches were the latest in a series of weapons tests that North Korea has conducted in recent weeks amid stalled nuclear talks and outside worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.

North Korean troops based in the eastern coastal city of Munchon first launched several projectiles — presumed to be cruise missiles — on Tuesday morning, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The weapons flew more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) at a low altitude off the North’s east coast, a South Korean defense official said. If confirmed, it would be the North’s first cruise missile launch in about three years, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.

Later Tuesday, North Korea launched several Sukhoi-class fighter jets that fired an unspecified number of air-to-surface missiles toward the North’s eastern waters, the defense official said.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

North Korea denies that Kim sent Trump ‘a nice note’.

Trump said during a press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic Saturday that “I received a nice note from him recently. It was a nice note. I think we’re doing fine.” Trump also defended now-stalled nuclear diplomacy with Kim, saying the U.S. would have been at war with North Korea if he had not been elected.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that there was no letter addressed to Trump recently by “the supreme leadership,” a reference to Kim.

It said it would examine why the U.S. leadership released “the ungrounded story” to the media.

“The relations between the top leaders of (North Korea) and the U.S. are not an issue to be taken up just for diversion nor it should be misused for meeting selfish purposes,” the statement said.

[Pleonast]

You know you’ve goofed when the North Koreans say your lies are poor.

[Kent_Clark]

Wouldn’t it be something if Trump really had been making headway with Kim, only to have it be all for nothing.

US monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader is in grave danger after surgery

[Bijou_Drains]

Little rocket man is getting rid of some top people. They might be sleeping with the fishes

North replaces head of spy agency, Kim Jong-un’s bodyguard: ministry

[wguy123]

I know OP is long gone, but his “statesman” question continues to be proven wrong:

North Korea still operating, improving nuclear fuel plant, experts say

Kim Jong-un Moves to Increase North Korea’s Nuclear Strength (Published 2020)

Trump sliced that drive so bad, it whipped back around and landed on the green behind him. Mulligan?

[bobot]

"North Korea said it was pulling away from its relationship with the U.S. two years after a historic handshake between President Donald Trumpand the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, in Singapore, saying there had been no actual improvement in ties.
“Never again will we provide the U.S. chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns,” North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said on state-run KCNA.
“Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise.”

2 years after Trump-Kim handshake, North Korea backs away from U.S.

Ooh, sounds like they’re mad at us. Where’s a Statesman when you need one?

[Grrr]

@bobot

"North Korea said it was pulling away from its relationship with the U.S. two years after a historic handshake between President Donald Trumpand the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, in Singapore, saying there had been no actual improvement in ties.
“Never again will we provide the U.S. chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns,” North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said on state-run KCNA.
“Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise.”
North Korea's Kim backs away from Trump relationship two years after historic handshake
Ooh, sounds like they’re mad at us. Where’s a Statesman when you need one?

No I’m picturing Trump crying in his bunker over a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream; devastated his boyfriend dumped him.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@bobot

"North Korea said it was pulling away from its relationship with the U.S. two years after a historic handshake between President Donald Trumpand the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, in Singapore, saying there had been no actual improvement in ties.

No actual improvement? No agreement no document? No deal? Almost like what most of us have been saying from day 1.

“Never again will we provide the U.S. chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns,” North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said

That could mean Kim Jong-Un is giving Trump the middle finger, or Kim knows Trump is almost out of bargaining leverage. Or Kim himself will be making no deals in the future because he is near or beyond death.