Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met last week with North Korean officials in an effort to follow up on Donald's recent summit with the North Korean dictator, and it turns out that—surprise!—North Korea isn't nearly as interested in denuclearization as the White House team were convinced they were.
In fact, now that they've got their desired photo-op done and over with they were more than happy to tell the United States to pound sand, mocking U.S. demands for speedy denuclearization "regrettable" and "gangster-like" in a statement issued after Pompeo had departed.
“We had expected that the U.S. side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders’ summit ... we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures,” it said. “However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting (between the countries) was no doubt regrettable. Our expectations and hopes were so naive it could be called foolish.”
Translation: We have no intention of denuclearizing. The offer, which as been made repeatedly to past presidents, was meant to get Trump on a plane and deliver pictures of North Korean strongman Kim Jong Murderboy being respected on the world stage. Show's over, morons.
Despite Trump idiotically tweeting after his own meeting that there is "no longer a Nuclear Threat" from North Korea, this is playing out exactly as most experts predicted it would. North Korea has incessantly dangled promises of denuclearization as a bargaining chip, in return for lifting punishing economic sanctions and world guarantees that no nation will lift a finger against the brutal North Korean dictatorship; such guarantees are in fact the sole reason the regime has pursued nuclear capabilities to begin with.
They will not be giving up the only thing that got an American president on a plane to begin with—at least, not unless the Trump team is willing to provide them with a United States guarantee of non-aggression even more compelling than an array of nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles would be. The nuclear threat is what the regime dangles to get actors to the table; once at the table, the intent is, as always, to press for the lifting of sanctions without giving away that one all-important bargaining chip.
There may be only one person in the entire world who does not grasp all this: The incompetent buffoon Donald Trump, who responded to North Korean mockery of his appointed go-between with dimwitted bluster.
Ah, yes. The notion that Donald Trump believes handshake deals are unbreakable bonds of trust manages to quite gracefully weave his ignorance of foreign policy with his legendary personal dishonesty. He's being sued yet again for failing to pay another of his own employees, by the way.
But my handshake.