[North Korea] The Dear Loser comes into his own.

[em2nought]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

[naednek]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

I know right! Talk about how many more trips to go golfing Drumpf could do!

[stessier]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend? The article I've found indicate it is about 1.5 billion of which South Korea pays about half (and indexed to inflation). That makes it basically a rounding error in the defense budget.

There was a 10.2 billion upgrade recently completed in the DMZ area, but South Korea paid 92% of the total.

[Rip]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend? The article I've found indicate it is about 1.5 billion of which South Korea pays about half (and indexed to inflation). That makes it basically a rounding error in the defense budget.

There was a 10.2 billion upgrade recently completed in the DMZ area, but South Korea paid 92% of the total.

Hey, that is about a mile of subway tunnel in Manhattan. BTW, building the wall will end up being a rounding error in the defense budget as well perhaps. Honest mistake.

[em2nought]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend?

I think the military lies about spending, or hides it, disguises it, or they probably have tricks I can't even think of. Salaries for 75,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen for example https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -east-asia

[stessier]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend? The article I've found indicate it is about 1.5 billion of which South Korea pays about half (and indexed to inflation). That makes it basically a rounding error in the defense budget.

There was a 10.2 billion upgrade recently completed in the DMZ area, but South Korea paid 92% of the total.

Hey, that is about a mile of subway tunnel in Manhattan. BTW, building the wall will end up being a rounding error in the defense budget as well perhaps. Honest mistake.

If the article is correct, we spend about $800 million/year in SK. The wall has been conservatively estimated to cost $22 billion just to build. The defense budget is $597 billion. Less than a billion is literally a rounding error. The wall is around 5% of the budget - not a rounding error.

[stessier]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend?

I think the military lies about spending, or hides it, disguises it, or they probably have tricks I can't even think of. Salaries for 75,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen for example https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -east-asia

You are deranged.

[Rip]

Nearly 80% of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un

Our job there is done, think of all the do good crap we could accomplish with the money we throw into the DMZ every year.

How much do you think we spend? The article I've found indicate it is about 1.5 billion of which South Korea pays about half (and indexed to inflation). That makes it basically a rounding error in the defense budget.

There was a 10.2 billion upgrade recently completed in the DMZ area, but South Korea paid 92% of the total.

Hey, that is about a mile of subway tunnel in Manhattan. BTW, building the wall will end up being a rounding error in the defense budget as well perhaps. Honest mistake.

If the article is correct, we spend about $800 million/year in SK. The wall has been conservatively estimated to cost $22 billion just to build. The defense budget is $597 billion. Less than a billion is literally a rounding error. The wall is around 5% of the budget - not a rounding error.

You don't pay for it all up front. Besides you are just looking at the operational defense spending. Throw in vet benefits, military retirement, and all those other little pockets and you would be surprised what can be pilfered unnoticed. Heck we "misplaced" around $8B in Iraq in less than ten years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2014/06/19/how-the ... -iraq.html

[GreenGoo]

Are you suggesting that the military members in SK would be released once the US pulls out of SK? The expenses you mentioned are independent of where those members are stationed.

I.e. those aren't SK specific expenses.

Presumably Blackwater stole that 8 billion, or used it to bribe corrupt officials. In any case, I'm sure it found a good home.

[Max Peck]

US 'provocation' threatens peace, says North Korea

North Korea has warned the US about using "pressure and military threats" against it as the two countries prepare for a historic summit.

A Foreign Ministry official said the US was deliberately provoking the North by suggesting sanctions will not be lifted until it gives up nuclear weapons.

The North Korean official, quoted by state news agency KCNA, said that Washington was "misleading public opinion" by saying the denuclearisation pledge resulted from sanctions and other pressure.

The US was also aggravating the current good atmosphere by deploying military assets on the Korean peninsula, they added.

"The US is deliberately provoking [North Korea] at the time when the situation on the Korean peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation thanks to the historic north-south summit and the Panmunjom Declaration," the statement said.

"This act cannot be construed otherwise than a dangerous attempt to ruin the hard-won atmosphere of dialogue and bring the situation back to square one.

"It would not be conducive to addressing the issue if the US miscalculates the peace-loving intention of [North Korea] as a sign of 'weakness' and continues to pursue its pressure and military threats against the latter."

[em2nought]

North Korea has warned the US about using "pressure and military threats" against it as the two countries prepare for a historic summit.

Dear Leader is just taking his cue from Stormy Daniels. Democrats will give you far more $ if you say bad things about Trump. Hell there's probably an airliner full of money headed his way right now, Obama style.

[hepcat]

They’re both gonna be able to say they screwed Trump soon enough. Kim Jong is friggin’ Stephen Hawking compared to the orange Joe Pesci impersonator you voted for. Hope you like kimchi.

[Unagi]

North Korea has warned the US about using "pressure and military threats" against it as the two countries prepare for a historic summit.

Dear Leader is just taking his cue from Stormy Daniels. Democrats will give you far more $ if you say bad things about Trump. Hell there's probably an airliner full of money headed his way right now, Obama style.

That is an absurd read on things.

Isn't it Trump who apparently will just hand any porn-star with a made-up-story $130K ?

[Rip]

Chump change. He spends more than that on golf balls every year.

[em2nought]

Hope you like kimchi.

I do like kimchi, and Korean massage parlors too.

[hepcat]

Chump change. He spends more than that on golf balls every year.

Well...we pay for those golf balls...and the millions more so he can play whenever he likes. Hillary would've stolen less from us than Trump, that's for sure.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

Three American men who had been imprisoned by North Korea are on their way to the United States, President Trump announced Wednesday after they were released to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to Pyongyang.

They were freed after Pompeo met for 90 minutes with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his second trip to Pyongyang ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Kim that could happen by next month.
...
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Trump “appreciates leaders Kim Jong Un’s action” and views it as “a positive gesture of goodwill.” She said all three Americans, Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song, boarded the plane without assistance.
...
The longest-held prisoner was Kim Dong-chul, a 64-year-old who once lived in Fairfax, Va., and was arrested in October 2015. He had been based in the Chinese city of Yanji, near the border with North Korea, and traveled back and forth to the special economic zone of Rajin-Sonbong, where he managed a hotel business.

But on his last visit, he was accused of spying for South Korea’s intelligence agencies, seeking to obtain details of the North’s military programs and trying to spread “religious” ideas — a serious crime in the North. He was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison after a sham trial.

Then, a year ago, two men associated with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST, a private institution run by Korean American Christians, were detained.

Tony Kim, a 59-year-old accountant, had made at least seven trips to Pyongyang, usually for a month at a time, to teach international finance and management to students at PUST, his son Sol Kim said in an interview.

He was stopped at Pyongyang’s airport in April 2017 and arrested for “committing criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn” North Korea.

Two weeks later, Kim Hak-song, an agricultural consultant who was also living in Yanji and working at PUST, was detained. He was also arrested on suspicion of “hostile acts” against North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim Dong-chul and Tony Kim were both born in South Korea, while Kim Hak-song is believed to have been born in China, although he is ethnically Korean.

[GungHo]

I dunno if it's my basic lack of faith in trump, or that I think he's dumber than a box of hammers, or just the facts of the situation but I can't for the life of me see how this is going to end well. Why is there optimism? Simply because the two nations are actually talking? Ok if that's the case then yes I applaud that but it makes zero sense, as in none, that Un gives up the nuclear weapons HE JUST GOT. And that he bankrupted his country for while simultaneously starving his people for the last 50 years...
It just doesn't pass the smell test.
And now that trump pulled out of the Iran deal, NK has a nice new trading partner ready to go.

Is the read that Un actually believes trump when he talks about fire and fury or his bigger red button? Even if that's the case he still has to believe that trump is willing to wager the lives of 10 million SK in Seoul. I think trump is a POS of the first order but even I don't think trump risks that.

Just all seems very surreal

[Kraken]

Is the read that Un actually believes trump when he talks about fire and fury or his bigger red button? Even if that's the case he still has to believe that trump is willing to wager the lives of 10 million SK in Seoul. I think trump is a POS of the first order but even I don't think trump risks that.

That's one leading viewpoint. Nixon tried pushing the "madman theory" through Kissinger, but Russian and North Vietnamese leaders didn't believe that he was genuinely crazy. Trump is a lot more convincing, if not the real deal.

It's hard to predict how the summit will end, especially with so little statecraft underpinning the stagecraft. Kim wants to soften his image for an international audience; Trump wants to harden his for a domestic one. If the talks collapse and/or lead to hostilities, each needs to be able to blame the other in order to satisfy his audience. In the unlikely event that they produce a peace treaty, Trump needs to get all the credit. He might or might not be willing to throw SK under the bus (by withdrawing US troops) to satisfy his ego -- my take is that that's what Kim is after.

[Holman]

North Korea has announced that they will dismantle Nuclear Test Site this month, ahead of the big Summit Meeting on June 12th. Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!

This is the underground site rendered unusable by an earthquake a few weeks ago, right?

Surely somebody in the administration has told Trump this, right?

[Skinypupy]

North Korea has announced that they will dismantle Nuclear Test Site this month, ahead of the big Summit Meeting on June 12th. Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!

This is the underground site rendered unusable by an earthquake a few weeks ago, right?

Surely somebody in the administration has told Trump this, right?

Why let the facts get in the way of red meat for the Trumpaloos? It never has before.

[Rip]

What are you guys going to find to mock when NK gives up five weapons right off the bat?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 526052798/

[Max Peck]

What are you guys going to find to mock when if NK gives up five weapons right off the bat?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 526052798/

I fixed that typo for you. I'll guess we'll have wait and to see if Kim accepts and follows through on the generous American offer to allow him to give up 5 of his nukes every month before anyone needs to redirect their derision.

[Blackhawk]

What are you guys going to find to mock when NK gives up five weapons right off the bat?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 526052798/

Trump, for claiming credit?

[GreenGoo]

Iran is a deceitful noncomplier, but NK has proven to be a trustworthy complier so it's totally reasonable to take their words at face value.

But to answer your question, you. It will always be you, Rip.

[hepcat]

What are you guys going to find to mock when NK gives up five weapons right off the bat?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 526052798/

I don’t know, maybe the fact that you and your ilk are in love with the same leader who recently sent back a half dead American prisoner who promptly died because of his treatment in North Korea?

But hey, at least he makes your guy look good right now. So he can probably torture and kill Americans to his heart’s content if he keeps telling the orange doofus he looks good on camera or something.

Hypocrites gonna hypocrite.

[Rip]

What are you guys going to find to mock when NK gives up five weapons right off the bat?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 526052798/

I don’t know, maybe the fact that you and your ilk are in love with the same leader who recently sent back a half dead American prisoner who promptly died because of his treatment in North Korea?

But hey, at least he makes your guy look good right now. So he can probably torture and kill Americans to his heart’s content if he keeps telling the orange doofus he looks good on camera or something.

Hypocrites gonna hypocrite.

In love with him? That is crazy. I hate is friggin guts and would have applauded it if a POTUS had ever stepped up and had him taken out.

You seem to be confused, butt kissing and appeasement is the exclusive domain of the left.

[hepcat]

Writes the guy who supports a president who recently called Kim Jong “very honorable”. You should’a voted for Hillary. She obviously has the bigger pair.

[Rip]

Writes the guy who supports a president who recently called Kim Jong “very honorable”. You should’a voted for Hillary. She obviously has the bigger pair.

You think I actually pay attention to or care what names Trump calls people?



But since what they call each other is apparently important to you, let's review.

“Crazy Dennis Rodman is saying I wanted to go to North Korea with him. Never discussed, no interest, last place on Earth I want to go to.”

“And nobody ever mentions North Korea where you have this maniac sitting there and he actually has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places. But certainly North Korea.”

“I would get China to make that guy disappear in one form or another very quickly.”

“I mean this guy’s a bad dude — and don’t underestimate him.”

“Any young guy that can take over from his father with all those generals and everybody else that probably wants the position, this is not somebody to be underestimated.”

“North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision. The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!”

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!”

“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!”

“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.”

[hepcat]

Writes the guy who supports a president who recently called Kim Jong “very honorable”. You should’a voted for Hillary. She obviously has the bigger pair.

You think I actually pay attention to or care what names Trump calls people?

<37 examples of Rip paying attention and caring what names Trump calls people>

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Trump talked tough...up until he started falling for the NK charm offensive. Now he's their Orange Neville Chamerblain. Perhaps you're getting all nuts over this because a part of you does realize you should've voted for Hillary so you wouldn't get all this appeasement with NK right now.

[Holman]

Quoting Trump talking tough is meant to prove that Kim has buckled under Trump's show of strength. After all, what can a totalitarian strongman do when you insult him on Twitter but give up his nuclear arsenal?

That's the right-wing narrative on all this, and it will continue to be so even after the deal is a botch that everyone but the GOP faithful understand as a victory for Pyongyang.

[Max Peck]

Who knows, maybe Kim really will do something that looks like a deal. After all, Kim started playing nice right about the time he made his historic trip to China, and suddenly Trump is trying to do Xi a solid by fast-tracking a deal for ZTE against the advice of his intelligence community. Xi must have done or promised something to earn that, right?

[Victoria Raverna]

suddenly Trump is trying to do Xi a solid by fast-tracking a deal for ZTE against the advice of his intelligence community. Xi must have done or promised something to earn that, right?

Yes. A project in Indonesia.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast ... t-and-road

[Max Peck]

suddenly Trump is trying to do Xi a solid by fast-tracking a deal for ZTE against the advice of his intelligence community. Xi must have done or promised something to earn that, right?

Yes. A project in Indonesia.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast ... t-and-road

That would probably do it. Classic Trump!

[Skinypupy]

And in today's least shocking development, NK cancels talks with SK, threatens to pull out of Trump meeting.

North Korea has cancelled Wednesday's high-level talks with South Korea because of anger over its joint military exercises with the US.

The North's official KCNA news agency said the exercises were a "provocation" and a rehearsal for an invasion.

It also warned the US over the fate of the historic summit between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump that is scheduled for 12 June.

What a surprising development! Who could ever have seen that coming?

[Holman]

But Kim *really* wants the spectacle of a superpower summit. That's what all this is about. It gives him legitimacy.

Pyongyang seems to be imposing the condition that the US and SK cancel their upcoming military exercise. If we do that (and we'll do it if Fox keeps calling Trump a Nobel laureate), it will be another huge win for the better politician.

[pr0ner]

I'm sure the years of state run paranoia is a hard habit to break for NK.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Oops. Summary: dont ask us to give up our nukes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44134910

[Defiant]

[pr0ner]

The fact this admin is surprised by this does not surprise me one bit.