Trump: Kim is our friend, US media is our biggest enemy

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Trump Faces Image v. Reality on Day After Summit

Despite a lack of any substantial move by North Korea — and his own off-the-cuff concession — Donald Trump insists that Pyongyang’s nuclear threat is over after his Tuesday historic photo opportunities with Kim Jong-un.

Swinging between self-promotion and anger that questions are being raised about the summit’s outcomes, Trump declared, “President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!”. Then he juxtaposed his new friend Kim with his long-time foe:

Trump tried to wish away the reality that, in the summit’s high-profile document, the commitment to “work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” merely repeats North Korea’s words from 1994 when talks on an Agreed Framework began with the Clinton Administration.

He also sought to defend his announcement — apparently impromptu, without consulting the US or South Korean militaries — that Washington will end joint military exercises with Seoul which have been held for decades. Doing so, he again used North Korea’s label for the exercises:

North Korean State media, in enthusiatic proclamation of a summit where Pyongyang and the US were equals, framed “denuclearization” as a step-by-step process in which the US must make commitments at each stage such as security guarantees, a drawdown of American forces on the Korean Peninsula, and an end to economic sanctions. The tightly-controlled reports emphasized that Trump was committed to lifting the sanctions as relations improved.

Bruce Klingner, a Korea specialist at the Heritage Foundation and a former CIA analyst, summarized, “[The document] is weaker than its predecessors. It’s a first step, but it’s a stumble more than a step. It’s not worth the hype that’s being accrued to it.”

Donald Trump salutes a North Korean military officer:

Pompeo’s Anger at Questions: “Insulting and Ridiculous”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Seoul to brief South Korean officials, said he expected to “begin the engagement” with North Korea within the next week. He expressed hope for completion of the “major disarmament” of North Korea before the end of the Trump Administration’s first term in January 2021.

But Pompeo bristled when faced with questions about the substance of the summit, in light of Trump’s declaration that no preparations were needed because he could “feel” and “touch” Kim within the first minute to ascertain intentions.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I wanted to ask you about “verifiable and irreversible” [denuclearization].

SECRETARY POMPEO: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: You said — the day before you said it’s our only objective, our — it’s clear we want that. It’s not in the statement. Why it’s not in the statement? And the president said it will —

SECRETARY POMPEO: Mm-hmm, it’s in the statement. It’s in the statement. You’re just wrong about that.

[Editor’s Note: There is no mention of “verifiable” and/or “irreversible” in the Trump-Kim document.]

QUESTION: How is it in the statement? And I am also —

SECRETARY POMPEO: You’re just — because “complete” encompasses verifiable and irreversible. It just — I suppose we — you could argue semantics, but let me assure you that it’s in the document.

QUESTION: And the president said it will be verified.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Of course it will.

QUESTION: Can you tell us a little bit more about —

SECRETARY POMPEO: Of course it will. I mean —

QUESTION: — what is — what discussed about how?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Just so you know, you could ask me this — I find that question insulting and ridiculous and, frankly, ludicrous. I just have to be honest with you. It’s a game and one ought not play games with serious matters like this.

QUESTION: But how will it be verified? Did you discuss that? Do you have —

SECRETARY POMPEO: Oh, we’re — they’re — the modalities are beginning to develop. There’ll be a great deal of work to do. It’s — there’s a long way to go, there’s much to think about, but don’t say silly things. No, don’t, don’t. It’s not productive. It’s not productive to do that, to say silly things. It’s just — it’s unhelpful.

QUESTION: Well, I think —

SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s unhelpful for your readers, your listeners, for the world. It’s — because it doesn’t remotely reflect the American position or the understandings that the North Koreans have either.

QUESTION: We’re just trying to understand how it reflects what you asked that —

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, and I just articulated that for you.

Pompeo insisted, “Not all of [our] work appeared in the final document, but [there were] lots of other places where there were understandings reached. We couldn’t reduce them to writing, so that means there’s still some work to do, but there was a great deal of work done that is beyond what was seen in the final document.”

Trump’s Latest Lie: Parents of Korean War POWs and MIAs Asked Me To Bring Bodies Home

In his latest lie, Donald Trump has said that parents of US soldiers killed in the Korean War asked him on the campaign trail in 2016 to bring their sons home.

The agreement to return bodies of POWs and MIAs from the 1950-1953 war was one of the four points in Monday’s Trump-Kim document.

Meanwhile, Trump continued to push away any scrutiny of North Korea and Kim over human rights:

GOP Head Warns Public: Embrace Trump Agenda or Else

Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican Party, backs up Donald Trump’s attacks on the media and extends the warning to everyone else in the US: