Korean Leaders to Meet in Pyongyang?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Washington considers a thaw in North/South relations a threat to its national security – stepping back from the brink to avoid catastrophic war an anathema notion to Trump administration hardliners.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong attended the Winter Games’ opening ceremony, the first DPRK ruling family member to enter the South since the 1950s Korean War.
She arrived at Incheon International Airport along with Pyongyang’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam and other DPRK officials.
He’s the most senior North Korean official to visit the South since US aggression on the North, turning much of the country to rubble, killing millions of its people.
Kim Yo-jong met South Korean President Moon Jai-in at the Winter Games’ opening ceremony, each extending cordial greetings, photos capturing the moment, hopefully an important one.
She gave Moon a handwritten note from her brother, expressing hope that “Pyongyang and Seoul will become closer,” including for “unification and prosperity in the near future.”
Through his sister, Kim invited Moon to visit Pyongyang at the “earliest date,” according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Moon reportedly said through his spokeswoman “(l)et us make it happen by creating the necessary conditions in the future,” adding:
“An early resumption of dialogue between the United States and the North is needed also for the development of the South-North Korean relationship.”
North and South leaders haven’t met since 2007. No US endorsement for them meeting is likely, Trump administration hardliners opposing it.
Days earlier in Tokyo before heading to the Winter Games, Mike Pence said “I’m announcing today that the United States will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea” – perhaps during the Olympics for emphasis, maybe a total oil ban, adding:
“Let the world know this: We will continue to intensify our maximum pressure campaign until North Korea takes concrete steps towards complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” – an unattainable objective as long as the DPRK fears US aggression.
In December, National Security Advisor HR McMaster ominously said “(w)e’re not committed to a peaceful solution. We’re committed to a resolution.”
“We have to be prepared if necessary to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without (its) cooperation” – threatening possible US aggression, risking millions of regional lives if Washington attacks the DPRK.
At the Winter Games, Pence tweeted the Trump administration won’t “allow the propaganda charade by (Pyongyang) to go unchallenged on the world stage” – continuing America’s war of words on the country, its hostility risking another devastating war.
North Korea’s Kim and South Korea’s Moon want catastrophic war on the peninsula avoided.
Washington’s rage for endless wars to gain control over planet earth, its resources and people may make peace on the peninsula unattainable.
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