Strike on North Korea

[Jimbuna]

Kim Jong-un's Winter Olympics squad will return to North Korea having failed to win any medals amid fears their lack of success in PyeongChang could land them in jail.

The dictator sent 22 athletes to the sports extravaganza in South Korea, supported by an army of 280 cheerleaders.

But they will return to Pyongyang without any of their sports stars making it onto podiums.

In the past, there have been reports of teams being punished or publicly shamed for failing to deliver at major international sports events. The tyrant's grandfather Kim Il Sung is said to have arrested and locked up the entire 1966 World Cup squad in gulags after they were knocked out of the tournament in the second round.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...face-JAIL.html

Can't say I'm surprised after what happened to the NK World Cup squad of 1966.

[Mr Quatro]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/02...aker-says.html

Kim Jong Un’s cash flow is expected to run dry by October if international sanctions continue crippling his regime’s economy, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday, following months of rumors about North Korea’s financial woes.

You know how they drop hay from helicopters and planes for cattle left high and dry after a flood?

Perhaps we should plan on dropping rice into North Korea for the hungry population and see if they want to shoot us down for humanitarian reason.

[Jimbuna]

North Korea will send one of its highest ranking figures, General Kim Yong-chol, to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Gen Kim was the North's intelligence chief, and is believed to have plotted several attacks on South Korea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43153976

Nothing beats inviting the fox into the hen house

I wonder what winter armchair atheletics discipline he'll be competing in

[Aktungbby]

Currently North and south Korea are 'making nice' in the wake of the Olympic unified women's hockey team. The man keeping the 'back-channels' open for several years now is Suh Hoon, essentially South Korea's top spy!

Originally Posted by wsj

At a dinner hosted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a delegation from the South this week, a bespectacled official leaned forward to talk to a grinning Mr. Kim—a scene captured in a photograph displayed prominently in the North’s largest newspaper.
The 63-year-old career intelligence officer was instrumental in back-channel contacts that led to the two inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007. In both those cases, Mr. Suh met extensively with Mr. Kim’s father, North Korea’s then-leader Kim Jong Il.
Mr. Suh—who is set to travel to Washington to brief U.S. officials on his visit to the North and Mr. Kim’s assertions that he is open to disarmament talks—has supported engagement with Pyongyang, while at the same time expressing deep doubts about the North’s trustworthiness and intentions. He is also a vocal supporter of Seoul’s alliance with Washington, and told South Korean lawmakers last year that the country should flatly reject any calls by North Korea to remove U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula—even if North Korea promises to dismantle its nuclear programs. In July 1997, he became the first South Korean official to be sent to live in the North, as part of efforts to construct light-water reactors in the North following a 1994 deal between Pyongyang and Washington to freeze North Korea’s nuclear program.
He gained more experience in following years, working to arrange summit meetings between the two sides—a process that involved spending time with North Korea’s previous leader, Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.
“Kim Jong Il was fond of Suh,” said Chung Dong-young, a former unification minister and current lawmaker who traveled to the North with Mr. Suh in 2005. In that meeting, aimed at persuading North Korea to return to denuclearization talks, Mr. Chung said he, Mr. Suh, and Kim Jong Il spent five hours together.
In 2008, Mr. Suh wrote a doctoral dissertation on the aims of North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programs, arguing that they were aimed ultimately at letting Pyongyang strike some kind of security deal with Washington.
“The North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons cannot persist as an eternal strategy,” Mr. Suh wrote in his dissertation, which was later published as a book. “Eventually, such a foreign policy will become an institutional constraint limiting North Korea’s growth.”

Undoubtedly Kim Jong Un, himself educated abroad in Switzerland and familiar with 63 year old Mr. Suh, with a certain comfort level stemming from his father's rule has read the dissertation. China is still the elephant-in-the-room; writing its own rules with unruly third generation tyrant Kim as it's politico-economic minion. Faced with a superpower on two sides, a prosperous South, a wicked tightening sanction-war and Mr Suh's assertion that the nuclear bargaining chip is ultimately fruitless the worm may be turning. At this stage: All eyes wide open; trust no one; sit and wait.....

[Jimbuna]

Previous efforts in the past have failed because NK insist on an end to joint military exercises between the US and SK but it is being reported here in the UK that NK are prepared to drop that demand.

Now that Trump has stated he will meet Kim in May there is much speculation as to what NK's true objectives are and I believe Kim is simply playing for time.

Donald Trump said he was ready for a summit with Kim in what would be the first face-to-face encounter between the two countries' leaders and potentially mark a major breakthrough in the crisis.

But North Korea made several promises to disarm in the past and has backtracked every time, leaving experts doubtful over whether it will also break the new commitments.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ssiles-nuclear

[Mr Quatro]

Peace treaty by May

This could be the best thing that ever happened to the USA and Japan and Guam and Hawaii and of course South Korea.

One more problem off President Trump's busy schedule ... sure they will cheat, but don't they all lie and cheat. This has been a trying time for all concerned.

[Jimbuna]

We can only live in hope of a successful eventual outcome

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

We can only live in hope of a successful eventual outcome

YEAH! TWO MEGALOMANIACS; EACH WITH A BAD HAIRCUT; EACH WITH A 'NUCLEAR BUTTON ON THEIR DESK

Originally Posted by FATBOY

“The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table,” Kim said during a televised speech. “The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range. ... The United States can never start a war against me and our country.”

VS TRUMPS RATHER STALWART RESPONSE(ON THIS OCCASION):

Originally Posted by THE DONALD

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

AS GENERAL CROOK FAMOUSLY SAID DURING THE GEROMIMO APACHE WARS...."IF YOU WISH TO HUNT APACHES YOU NEED APACHES (SCOUTS) OF YOUR OWN"...IT DOESN'T HURT IF FATBOY THINKS THE DONALD IS A LITTLE NUTS!

[Rhodes]

^ There is an old Vulcan proverb: only Nixon could go to China.

[mapuc]

Overall I hear

- It's a propaganda victory for KJU.

And on some other pages
- Trump doesn't know what he have said yes to.

If it is necessary to give KJU this propaganda points to reach what's most important, then let him have this propaganda victory.

I think Trump know exactly what he is doing.

When I heard about it I was somehow glad, glad that it may end in a real peace treaty and maybe a nuclear free Korean peninsula

And now an off topic thing to this upcoming meeting.

My imagination so to say ran away with me.

I saw scenes from Olympus has fallen, but in a different way-Trump being kidnapped in NK.

End of off topic.

Markus

[Platapus]

We can only hope for the best. Sitting down and talking is a great start. Let's hope that mature negotiation can happen.

[Delgard]

Keeping Trump from making a decision before listening to advisors may bee a chore. I hope his advisors stay close to him. I am glad that John Kelly was also a General.

Pressure needs to stay on and he needs good OPSEC at the poker table.

KJU and advisors are watching and evaluating everything...especially the American press.

...a good chess match.

[Platapus]

Well that didn't take long. Trump is already backing off talking with NK.

[ikalugin]

Previous efforts failed b/c US pulled out of them.

[Jimbuna]

Earlier, the White House said the meeting would not take place unless Pyongyang took "concrete actions".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43353274

Most wise IMHO