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The NK-US Summit Thread

Score for Trump-Kim summit


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    19

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
A very emotional day for everyone in the world witnessing the signing of agreement between Trump and Kim. This calls for a celebration. Celebrated with my therapists.

Started with cocktails
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Fish maw soup
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Deep friend chicken wings
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Kale and mushrooms
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Beehoon
Iv7Uj1G.jpg


Wanton
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Truth_Hurts

Alfrescian
Loyal
Dumb ass yanks allowed to be conned. They just gave up their advantage over China. Soon Japan and South Korea will be controlled by ah tiong land. At least the ah tiong commies in this forum will be happy.

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North Korea's agreement with Donald Trump presents a host of challenges and opportunities
ANALYSIS BY NORTH ASIA CORRESPONDENTMATTHEW CARNEYUPDATED ABOUT 3 HOURS AGO
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PHOTO
The effects of the US and North Korean leaders agreement will affect Japan, China and South Korea.

THE STRAITS TIMES: KEVIN LIM
US President Donald Trump called the declaration signed at end of the summit with Kim Jong-un "comprehensive" but it only contained four generalised main points and was very light on detail.

It was more of a statement of intent on denuclearisation, and a commitment to a "lasting and stable peace" with unspecified "security guarantees" to the North Korean leader.

Read the document in full[/paste:font]
The statement details the two leaders' plans to cooperate on denuclearisation and peace on the Peninsula.
In a press conference at the end of the summit, Mr Trump seemed convinced that "it would be complete denuclearisation and would be verified as soon as possible," and that his deal is very different to any other.

He asserted "it was a bold step to a bright new future" and "only the most courageous can make peace".

Surely the sentiment was there, but it didn't answer many of the concerns or provide the substance of how denuclearisation, stability and peace might be achieved for the region.

At this early stage China is a clear winner.

PHOTO China's relationship with North Korea appears to have been repaired.
AP: JU PENG/XINHUA

For the last year the middle kingdom has been calling for "a suspension for a suspension" and in one of the few concrete measures that's exactly what Mr Trump conceded.

He said all joint US and South Korean war games would cease, to match a freeze of North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

It's a signal to China that their demands are being met and raises hopes that China's strategic interests can further be served.

In the coming rounds of meetings and negotiations China will push for at the very least a 'redefinition' of the 28,000 US troops in South Korea to 'peacekeepers'.

Mr Trump himself said he eventually wants the troops to come home.

This is a golden opportunity for China to consolidate its ambitions of dominance in Asia.

The American troop presence in South Korea — with their massive bases — are the biggest projection of US power into the region. With a dilution of that China stands to gain.

Understanding North Korea[/paste:font]
Over the years, Radio National's Rear Vision has examined the story behind North Korea and the Kim family.
It could represent the first opening for China that sees itself surrounded by US bases in South Korea, Japan, Guam and Philippines.

China's relationship with North Korea, regardless of what is to happen between the US and North Korea, has been repaired.

So for Mr Trump to return to 'maximum pressure' with sanctions will prove very difficult.

China provides 90 per cent of trade to North Korea and sanctions have only really worked because China turned the screws over the last year on coal, iron-ore, seafood and North Korean labour.

China is already lining up to take advantage of any opening up of North Korea and it is well positioned to do so.

Already three massive industrial/free trade zone areas exist on its border with North Korea and large infrastructure projects like new bridges are ready to go.

China wants to take advantage of the North Korean labour, which will be among the cheapest in the world.

It also want to use deeper economic ties to boost the sluggish economic growth in its north eastern provinces.

So it was no surprise that China's Foreign Ministry called for sanctions to be eased soon after the signing to the joint declaration in Singapore.

PHOTO South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un have met several times prior to the Trump-Kim summit.
AP: AHN YOUNG-JOON

South Korea probably has the most to lose and most to gain out of a peace treaty and denuclearisation.

For 65 years South Koreans have lived with the ever present threat from the North and an estimated 8,000 artillery pieces pointed at its capital Seoul.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the son of North Korean refugees, has staked his presidency on bringing peace to the Peninsula.

After the summit he congratulated Mr Trump and Mr Kim, calling it "an historic event that will end the last remaining conflict of the Cold War and write a new history of peace and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula".

While there is great optimism in South Korea, many are still haunted by the ghosts of failed peace talks that are light on detail and concrete commitment.

What's more, as Mr Trump reiterated, South Korea will have to pay for its peace and reconstruction of the North and that's a massive bill in order of perhaps a trillion dollars, that many are wary of paying.

PHOTO Japan Self-Defense Forces soldiers take part in a drill in response to a recent missile launch by North Korea.
REUTERS: ISSEI KATO

And last but not least is Japan, which has felt sidelined by the whole process.

Japan has faced the stark reality of having North Korean missiles being lobbed over their territory in the past year.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's last minute dash to Washington to see Mr Trump last week was an attempt to make sure Japan's interest could be heard.

While it is feasible that Mr Kim might give up his ICBM's (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) that could hit American cities if economic concessions follow, giving up the medium or short term missiles in Japan's range might not be so easy to put on the agenda.

PHOTO Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful launch of a missile.
REUTERS: KCNA

Mr Kim may not be so ready to give up that regional strategic advantage.

Also the Japanese fear the fate of their citizens kidnapped by North Korea — a hugely emotional issue — could be lost in negotiations to come.

Japan, China and South Korea all value the new direction set by the Trump-Kim summit but the different and sometimes competing needs and strategies of each country could present potential stumbling blocs in the coming months and years as they have done in past negotiations.

POSTED ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO
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Trump says sanctions will remain in place until Kim gives up his nukes
This is the document Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un just signed
'This time it's different': How the historic summit between the US and North Korea unfolded
Trump says Kim's political prisoners are 'great winners' after summit
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Truth_Hurts

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Singapore summit echoes Hitler-Chamberlain meeting in 1938, but offering 'lots of great condos' in our time
OPINION BY MICHELINE MAYNARDUPDATED 8 MINUTES AGO
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PHOTO
Mr Trump's supporters saw exactly what they wanted: the belligerent candidate they put into office acting in trademark fashion.

REUTERS: JONATHAN ERNST
Four days after he took office, US President Donald Trump made good on a campaign pledge and withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He had derided the painstakingly negotiated 12-nation treaty as a "potential disaster for our country" because of the harm it would do to manufacturing jobs.

But now, in his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Mr Trump has set off on what may become a new type of Trans-Pacific Partnership, this time under his own terms.

Only this one will tie the United States to a Communist country with which it was at war six decades ago, and also possibly open the door to more ties to another Communist country, China, with which the US only re-established relations under another Republican president, Richard M Nixon, in 1972.

Mr Trump's audacity is still reverberating in political circles in the United States and elsewhere. But he was perhaps unintentionally clear in at least one of his aims for the detente with North Korea.

Although it was ostensibly portrayed as an effort to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons, Mr Trump unveiled another goal in a news conference after the meeting in Singapore.

"As an example, they have great beaches," Mr Trump mused. "You see that whenever they're exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said, 'Boy, look at that view. Wouldn't that make a great condo.'"

He went on, "You could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective. You have South Korea, you have China, and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that, right? It's great."


PHOTO Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful launch of a missile.
REUTERS: KCNA

Echoes of Adolf Hitler meeting in 1938
It was a revealing moment, but it also brought to mind another meeting between a Western leader and another strongman, this one from Germany, that took place 80 years ago.

YOUTUBE:Chamberlain declares 'I believe it is peace in our time' in 1938
In September, 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain travelled to Munich, along with French prime minister Eduard Daladier and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, to meet with Adolf Hitler.

The meeting resulted in an agreementthat allowed Germany to annex a portion of Czechoslovakia, after Germany had reclaimed the Rhineland and took control of Austria. It was clear that Germany would take control of the German-speaking Sudetenland by force, unless European leaders would get out of his way.

Chamberlain agreed, thinking that war had been avoided. And in one of the biggest miscalculations in history, he told a crowd in front of Buckingham Palace: "I believe it is peace in our time."

In fact, Germany's ambitions did not end there, and Britain declared war on Germany a year later.

A number of commentators said Tuesday that Mr Trump was miscalculating by agreeing to a number of steps, such as ending joint military exercises with South Korea, without significant concessions from Mr Kim.

Trump ditching allies for new friends, in Asia
There were reports that Chinese officials knew about the step before the US informed its embassy in South Korea and, most certainly, before the US told other allies about the step.

But Mr Trump, in just this past week, has shown that he is dispensing with America's traditional partners in the West, and turning to a new set of friends, namely those who have welcomed him in Asia.

His spat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over steel and aluminium tariffs threatens to explode into a bigger trade war over auto parts.

That tangle and his running disagreements with French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron over climate change prompted Mr Trump's refusal to sign a joint G7 statement, leave Charlevoix, Quebec early, and fire off angry tweets from Air Force One on his way to Singapore to rendezvous with Mr Kim.

His smiles, and arm pats and handshakes there were a sharp contrast to the stormy scene he left behind him.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.









VIDEO 1:40
Trump says war games with South Korea have been suspended

ABC NEWS
Trump supporters watch their guy go
All of it was exactly what Mr Trump's supporters want to see. First, the belligerent candidate they put into office acting in trademark fashion, and then pulling off the kind of public spectacle with the North Korean dictator that no other president would attempt, let alone tolerate.

Read the document in full[/paste:font]
The statement details the two leaders' plans to cooperate on denuclearisation and peace on the Peninsula.
Even Mr Trump, however, knows that his bold action may end up in failure, just as Chamberlain's agreement with Hitler blew up in Europe's face 80 years ago.

North Korea has said numerous times that it was willing to discuss denuclearisation, only to fail to follow through. Meanwhile, it has continued to test nuclear weapons, which are the main leverage it has over its Asian neighbours, as well as the West.

Mr Trump, despite his euphoria, seemed to be setting the bar low. And in a statement displaying the brashness his biographers and other journalists have come to know, he admitted his gamble with Mr Kim could be for naught.

"I may be wrong," Mr Trump said during the news conference. "I may stand before you in six months and say, 'Hey, I was wrong'.

"I don't know that I'll ever admit that," he said with a smile, "but I'll find some kind of an excuse."

He may like to brush up on his World War II history.

Chamberlain, as Britain headed into war with Germany, told the House of Commons:

"Everything that I have worked for, everything that I have hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public life has crashed into ruins."

Micheline Maynard is a journalist and author whose father trained with the RAF and served in the US Army Air Corps during World War II.

POSTED 52 MINUTES AGO
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There was a clear winner in the agreement between the US and North Korea — China
The Trump-Kim agreement is far from a touchdown — and even the President knows it
No more war games but sanctions remain. Here's what else Trump had to say after the summit
Trump says sanctions will remain in place until Kim gives up his nukes

Trump says Kim's political prisoners are 'great winners' after summit

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bobby

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think he knows that China will never help to build up their economy. It has been so many years with China cooperation .Yet N Korea remains an economic backwater compared to their southern neighbour. US on the other hand has done a lot to bring up South Korea after the Korean War.

Kim can’t even pay for their accommodation in Singapore . That ‘s how bad it is. They need massive economic aid and investments from US and it’s allies.

I beg to differ.

Fat Boy did not travel to Singapore by budget airline. The Air China 747may not be his but still he got it all to his own.

The hotel suite stay at St Regis does not even cost more than his own portable toilet he brought along.
 
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