Live North Korea-America Summit Updates Thread

[Parrish]

That's an understatement! Our closest partner right across the 49th parallel is nervous! And we share a border!

My former "cousin-in-law" in Seoul is terrified. Her children are from her marriage to an American and she became an American citizen. Friends in Australia look to 45's behavior at the G7 and just ask WTH?

 

[SheWolf]

Dennis Rodman on CNN crying, peddling crappy cryptocurrency, and making Kim sound like a playful child while wearing a MAGA hat is peak Trumpland.

This country has lost its ****.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

If Trump has managed to harness his lunacy to speak in some way to the North Korean lunacy, good for him.
I'll cheer for it just as I cheered Nixon opening up inroads to Mao's China.
Didn't stop Nixon from being forced to resign however, but when people want to think of a positive legacy for Nixon, there's that.

No reason why we as Americans can't applaud the notion that Donald Trump figured out how to get Kim to the table.
Now let's see if anything positive develops as a result.

 

[PLizzy]

Perhaps. But let us look at this from North Korea's point of view. The regime knows that it is vulnerable because its only ally, China, seems to utterly loathe them. I am sure North Korea regime felt the squeeze when the PRC suspended trade and froze its coal imports into China after they started up nuclear testing. Such is the danger when your country is a squalid hellhole and you have only a single patron upon whom they rely for practically all economic support. It may be that the North Korean wants to open up its options. Presuming the North Korean regime is a relatively rational actor (which they are, if an utterly evil one), it may be that North Korea wants to open itself a bit more to the world and perhaps open trade ties with the United States in exchange for, oh, I don't know...massive economic aid. Kind of like many of the dictatorships that the United States helped to prop up in the past, and still does to some extend to this day.

It could also be that North Korea wants China to believe that they are willing to be flipped.

 

[jnug]

Another banality from the 24/7's:

"China's largest banks have been laundering NK money. That give us enormous leverage over them."

Oh really...well if we have all this enormous leverage explain to me why they are laundering NK money with impunity.

Do these people actually listen to themselves or rattle that around in the gumball machine brains before letting it pop out their mouths!

 

[Chomsky]

This is funny. For the majority of Trump's presidency, anti Trump folks thought Trump's rhetoric toward NK was too harsh and too dangerous and Trump's going to get us into war. I even saw arguments in favor of just being ok with with a nuclear armed NK rather than rocking the boat. Now they're actually talking and Trump's not being harsh enough. He literally is damned if does and damned if he doesn't, is he?

It seems to me Trump just can't seem to find that smooth center, to be honest.

 

[SheWolf]

This is a photo op.

Kim already won. NK gets the summit it has always wanted, and China is bringing North Korea AND South Korea into it's Silk Road Initiative.

I should assume you have no idea what that means. It means that, over time, SK will drift into China's influence.

I agree. NK does seem to have won the most already.

To be honest, the photos are really weird to look at. I feel uncomfortable about this. Trump is obviously there for all the wrong reasons, and he is definately exploiting the photos and publicity in his own way.

He looks happier in these photos than he did at the G7. There is so much wrong with this.

 

[Chomsky]

My former "cousin-in-law" in Seoul is terrified. Her children are from her marriage to an American and she became an American citizen. Friends in Australia look to 45's behavior at the G7 and just ask WTH?

Undoubtedly.

As Americans, I suspect few of us know the fear Seoulites experience with 50-100K pieces of high-powered artillery locked & loaded and aimed at their heads. And now, nukes.

 

[jnug]

It seems to me Trump just can't seem to find that smooth center, to be honest.

He does not seek a smooth center. He bounces back and forth at the extremities on purpose and then attempts to suggest to us that he found some noncommittal middle. He goes from needing to be peeled off the ceiling to looking like somebody slipped him a couple of Quaaludes back to needing to be peeled off the ceiling back to that drugged docile look. After a few rounds of that he declares that we will "just have to see". Its a great magic act if nothing else. David Copperfield would be proud.

 

[X Factor]

It seems to me Trump just can't seem to find that smooth center, to be honest.

That whistling you hear is the point sailing right over your head.

 

[jnug]

Undoubtedly.

As Americans, I suspect few of us know the fear Seoulites experience with 50-100K pieces of high-powered artillery locked & loaded and aimed at their heads. And now, nukes.

Which is why I really have been hoping that Moon gets his end to formal war NOW! Moon has been absolutely stellar here and he I am afraid he is going to be left wanting. Talk about a guy that deserves much better. If I had my way, Moon would get his peace and its Moon that would get the Nobel.

 

[SheWolf]

People keep saying that all Kim wanted was the photos for propaganda, but what they don't understand is that Trump wanted the same thing.

Trump looks happier with Kim than he does with our allies at G7.

 

[Chomsky]

Dennis Rodman on CNN crying, peddling crappy cryptocurrency, and making Kim sound like a playful child while wearing a MAGA hat is peak Trumpland.

I saw that.

As I channel hopped, I got Hannity singing propaganda, CNN interviewing the Rodman freak show, and MSNBC being 18 ways of critical.

Geez! Where's Walter Cronkite & Edward R. Murrow, when we need them?

 

[Parrish]

Just heard someone say that 45 called one of our closest allies weak and dishonest and he now says how "honored" he is to meet a murderous dictator. He treats our long time ally as a security threat and yet warmly greets another thug like a respected leader and a star on his reality show.

 

[Parrish]

Trump looks happier with Kim than he does with our allies at G7.

Thugs, Inc. Finally someone he identifies with.

 

[Chomsky]

Which is why I really have been hoping that Moon gets his end to formal war NOW! Moon has been absolutely stellar here and he I am afraid he is going to be left wanting. Talk about a guy that deserves much better. If I had my way, Moon would get his peace and its Moon that would get the Nobel.

I might agree. And he's not only got to deal with Kim, but with Xi too. And of course, The Donald. What a mess! :doh

 

[Chomsky]

That whistling you hear is the point sailing right over your head.

Oh, I caught the point. I was offering rebuttal!

(which may have flown over your head, because it is indeed accurate)

 

[Parrish]

Moon is the unsung hero in trying to save our world from a war of unspeakable horror.

 

[Chomsky]

He does not seek a smooth center. He bounces back and forth at the extremities on purpose and then attempts to suggest to us that he found some noncommittal middle. He goes from needing to be peeled off the ceiling to looking like somebody slipped him a couple of Quaaludes back to needing to be peeled off the ceiling back to that drugged docile look. After a few rounds of that he declares that we will "just have to see". Its a great magic act if nothing else. David Copperfield would be proud.

No, it's a reality tv show.

 

[jnug]

Could we not see this coming? Even MSNBC is falling all over themselves fawning over this freak show as if there is something beyond the actual PR impact going on. There is like one gal, Nicole Wallace and to some extent Chris Mathews even on MSNBC urging caution and they are of course just ignoring those two. So of course they are perfectly set up....exactly where they want to be. As soon as Trump starts tweeting nonsense about that Lyin' Rocket Man the 24/7's will be all over that like white on rice. The soap opera continues.

 

[Parrish]

Could we not see this coming? Even MSNBC is falling all over themselves fawning over this freak show as if there is something beyond the actual PR impact going on. There is like one gal, Nicole Wallace and to some extent Chris Mathews even on MSNBC urging caution and they are of course just ignoring those two. So of course they are perfectly set up....exactly where they want to be. As soon as Trump starts tweeting nonsense about that Lyin' Rocket Man the 24/7's will be all over that like white on rice. The soap opera continues.

Maybe you're having a difficult time differentiating the fact that they aren't buying into 45's BS.

 

[vesper]

As long as Kim is in peace talks, there's no way our allies will cooperate with or allow a military action. Nor will China.

This is extremely disingenuous. We're conversing on an opinion board, in a thread for opinion and speculation. My opinion and speculation is worth as much as yours. And if you feel your opinion isn't worth a thin dime, please don't value mine accordingly. :doh

If Kim Jong Un does not walk the fine line and it is proved he has been disingenuous on any front it doesn't matter about any talks ongoing this exercise is over and a new course of dealing with NK will pursue and that pursuance includes the possibility of military actions on the table. Our allies know that to be fact. In fact China most of all is well aware of such threat.

But tonight was a momentous occasion that the two actually sat down together.

 

[Serenity]

Watching Kim Jon-un moseying around Singapore, being cheered and applauded like some kind of celebrity is beyond disturbing.

How quickly people forget that this man is the leader of a regime that has well documented and long records of shocking human rights abuses. Just shocking.

I welcome any positive breakthroughs that may arise from the meeting that involve progress towards denuclearisation but I do not support turning a blind eye to the suffering he is inflicting on his own people.

 

[Parrish]

If Kim Jong Un does not walk the fine line and it is proved he has been disingenuous on any front it doesn't matter about any talks ongoing this exercise is over and a new course of dealing with NK will pursue and that pursuance includes the possibility of military actions on the table. Our allies know that to be fact. In fact China most of all is well aware of such threat.

But tonight was a momentous occasion that the two actually sat down together.

Jesus sat down for a meal with Judas. What's your point?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

He does not seek a smooth center. He bounces back and forth at the extremities on purpose and then attempts to suggest to us that he found some noncommittal middle. He goes from needing to be peeled off the ceiling to looking like somebody slipped him a couple of Quaaludes back to needing to be peeled off the ceiling back to that drugged docile look. After a few rounds of that he declares that we will "just have to see". Its a great magic act if nothing else. David Copperfield would be proud.

And yet, as even detractors like Bill Maher have said, (paraphrased) "It just might work! Give Looney Tunes a chance. Maybe he's speaking Kim's language."

We know that Trump is utterly incapable of speaking to leaders of free industrialized democracies but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a flair for speaking to corrupt tin horn tyrants. I daresay that it requires an entirely different skill set.