Tag Archives: North Korea

Just A Few ‘Toons …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Global Issues, Holidays, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

In the interest of keeping it short, sweet, and to the point today (not to mention in the interest of the fact that I have more to do today than there are hours in the day), I have just a few ‘toons to make you shake your head and maybe smile … more likely smirk … on this Saturday afternoon.

I think there can be no doubt that the “Grand Old Party” can no longer be considered very ‘grand’ … I would say the GOP has done a 180° turn from the values they once claimed.GOP-principles.jpg

While Trump claims that he and Kim Jong-un of North Korea have a “very good relationship”, North Korea continues to test their nuclear capabilities, and Kim Jong-un promised, somewhat ominously, to send a Christmas gift to the United States earlier this month … though, as far as I know, said gift has yet to materialize.  North-Korea.jpg

While I work very hard at not critiquing others’ religions, I have to say that I’m a might sick and tired of the religious right, aka evangelicals, hypocrisy and double-standards …

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It’s a sign of the times here in the U.S. …

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And lest we forget what this nation is doing to innocent children …

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Well … perhaps cartoons are sometimes more about waking us up, making us think, than making us laugh, yes?

Timely Advice From Morning Joe

Posted on by under Political commentary

Yesterday, I found myself completely overwhelmed by the amount of news … tariffs, Trump’s trip to the UK, anti-trust investigations, impeachment, gun control, anti-abortion laws, etc., etc., etc.  Where to start?  My mind spun, then bounced as I read article after article, most somehow involving Donald Trump.  I think we are all beginning to feel as if we are on a carousel that is spinning faster and faster while we try to hold on for dear life.

This morning I happened upon an OpEd by former member of Congress, now host of Morning Joe on MSNBC with Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough that I think makes a lot of sense.  Mr. Scarborough offers us some timely advice about keeping our eye on the ball, so I decided to share it with you.

Disregard Trump’s ground noise. Focus on the signal.

By Joe Scarborough, June 3 at 4:08 PM

Joe-ScarboroughMy first year in Congress was spent absorbing attacks from a local newspaper unimpressed by the fact I was the first Republican elected in my area of Florida since Reconstruction. They appreciated my lectures on small government conservatism no more than does the current collection of Big Government Republicans in Washington.

During my freshman year on the Hill, I tried to respond to every charge from every article, political cartoon or editorial page. After one particularly stem-winding speech that I delivered at the downtown Rotary Club in Pensacola, Fla., three-star admiral Jack Fetterman took me aside and gently offered advice that I carry with me a quarter-century later. He put his arm around me and said, “Joe, you have to learn to separate the ground noise from the signal. And here’s the secret, son: It’s almost always ground noise.”

I thought of the admiral’s words this weekend as I glanced at the news feed coming in over my phone.

Video from the Sun, a British tabloid, showed that President Trump called a princess “nasty”; then he denied calling her that; then Trump had his team release a tape that showed he called her that; then Fox News hosts attacked those quoting the Trump manuscript that showed he called her “nasty.”

Trump then dismissed reports of him calling her “nasty,” waving off the Sun’s transcripts as “fake news.”

I also learned from my news feed that Trump staffers told the Navy to keep the USS John S. McCain out of Trump’s line of sight; Trump then denied that request was ever made; Reporters proved that request was, in fact, made. Trump staffers admitted to the request.

Trump then dismissed the reports as “fake news.”

It is easy to be blinkered by the ground noise generated by from the president’s Twitter feed, or from his ministers of propaganda, or from his quivering quislings on Capitol Hill. It is difficult to brush aside the steady stream of lies and half-truths that insult our intelligence. But the good admiral would tell you that you have no other choice unless you want to fly your fighter jet straight into the side of a mountain.

Ignore the ground noise and search for the signal, instead. That may seem difficult but, after three years of Trumpian madness, it is imperative.

The signal is the Mueller report. Read it. The evidence inside is both impeachable and indictable. It also documents that the Russians tried to undermine U.S. democracy and that the president and his team, rather than reporting the interference, welcomed our enemy’s help.

William P. Barr is ground noise. The attorney general has been caught lying to the American people with his letter, lying to Congress with his testimony and lying to the media in his interviews. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times accurately labeled Barr as Trump’s minister of disinformation. She is right. His words are now as meaningless as Kellyanne Conway’s or Roger Stone’s.

The signal is the United States’ $22 trillion debt; record deficits; a fading bond market; trade wars with Mexico and China; a $16 billion welfare scheme for farmers; tariff taxes; a bloated defense budget that funds military-industrial complex programs that the Pentagon does not even want; a Middle Eastern war taxpayers are underwriting for the benefit of a bloodthirsty Saudi prince; and rising tensions in the Persian Gulf also aimed at mollifying that same leader, who had a Post contributing columnist tortured and killed.

Focus also on the pattern of behavior. After the economic crisis, Donald Trump endorsed the Wall Street bailout and praised the feds for giving billions of dollars to bankers whose greed had crushed middle-class workers. A decade later, the populist plutocrat championed tax cuts for multinational corporations and millionaire members inside his clubs. As Trump told a group of wealthy Mar-a-Lago Club members the day he signed the tax bill into law, “You all just got a lot richer.” In this one respect, Trump was right. His Palm Beach buddies did make millions from “tax reform,” but as with the tariffs he keeps touting, it is working-class Americans who will ultimately pay the tab.

Ignore the noise and focus on the signal coming from North Korea, where the building of a nuclear program continues unimpeded. The president’s bewildering response to this growing threat has been to adopt the party line of North Korea’s Communist Party and profess his love for the dictator who tortured and caused the death of a U.S. college student for trying to bring a poster home. A strong warning signal also gets sent every time Trump chooses to accept the word of a former KGB agent over the professional conclusions of the FBI, CIA, the director of national intelligence and Homeland Security leaders that the president, himself, appointed.

That signal may lead us back to the Mueller report as well as Trump’s personal pursuit of riches. And focusing on that signal may lead us to better understanding why the president has been so willing to sell out American democracy to Russian dictators and Saudi Arabian sheikhs.

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Clear And Present Danger

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary

What happens when you let a temperamental madman make uninformed and uneducated foreign policy decisions is that you end up with a heap of trouble on your plate.  We have all been so caught up in the day-to-day detritus surrounding Trump, his corruption, the Mueller report, ongoing obstruction of justice, and Mitch McConnell’s attempt to help the rise of a dictator that we may be ignoring some critical issues.  Our blogging friend Keith has recently noted that Donald Trump poses a “clear and present danger” to not only our own country, but to every nation on the globe.  He is quite right.

From the German newspaper der Spiegel …

The Americans are currently escalating the conflict with Tehran — with unpredictable consequences for their allies in Europe. In Berlin political circles, worries are growing about the potential threat of war.

From the UK’s The Guardian …

Donald Trump is doing everything possible to provoke a conflict with Iran while making it look like Iran’s fault.  A year ago, Trump withdrew the US from the deal that has successfully stopped Iran from getting nuclear weapons – despite the IAEA and even the Trump administration confirming Iran was abiding by the agreement. The day Trump took the US out of the deal, he lit the fuse of a potential crisis.

From Foreign Policy magazine …

Before matters spin out of control, it would be wise for the administration to dial back the rhetoric, open high-level channels with Tehran, and signal a willingness to reenter the nuclear deal as a starting point for new negotiations. But there is zero prospect the administration will take this course. It is doubling down on a strategy of maximum tension, and there is growing evidence it is on a path toward war—whether Trump realizes it or not.

From The Economist …

Just four years ago America and Iran were on a different path. After Barack Obama offered to extend a hand if Iran’s leaders “unclenched their fist”, the two sides came together, leading to the nuclear deal. That promised to set back the Iranian nuclear programme by more than a decade, a prize in itself, and just possibly to break the cycle of threat and counter-threat that have dogged relations since the Iranian revolution 40 years ago.

Foreign policy experts from all around the globe see Trump’s taunting of Iran as trouble.  Except, of course, our own National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.  Bolton has, in the past, advocated bombings, wars and regime change and is, in my book, a warmonger.  For two decades, he has called for military action in both Iran and North Korea. Pompeo is a bigoted Islamophobe who made it clear that he would do everything in his power to undermine the Iran nuclear agreement even before he was nominated for Secretary of State.

Just as he did with the Paris Accord, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear agreement in May 2018. The excuse was that Iran had not upheld their end of the bargain, though Trump’s own administration, as well as international sources, claimed that Iran was in full compliance with the agreement.  But that was only the beginning …

After pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement, he immediately re-imposed economic and trade sanctions on Iran, including an embargo on dealings with the country by the U.S., and a ban on selling aircraft and repair parts to Iranian aviation companies.  The U.S. has also been responsible for targeting the country with fake news and disinformation about its past nuclear activities and present-day links to terrorism.  Iran has faced cyber-attacks, its scientists have been assassinated, its ballistic missile program sabotaged – all by the United States.  Is it any wonder, then, that Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei announced on May 1st that he was placing Iranian forces on high alert and that he views Washington’s actions as “total war”?

The Trump regime responded by sending a carrier strike group and bomber taskforce to the region, further escalating the already high tensions. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Pompeo canceled a trip to Germany to travel to Baghdad with the goal of bringing the Iraqi regime on board with the Trump’s strategy against Iran.

And now, Iran has declared that it will not abide by some of its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  This is a blow to our allies, and to add insult to injury, Iran has given our European allies who are trying to hold the deal together just 60 days to find a way to protect Iranian oil exports and financial activity from U.S. sanctions.  If they are unable to do so, which is likely, Iran says it may back out of the agreement altogether and basically resume their nuclear program.

I leave off where I began … ignorance in foreign policy is dangerous, it is stupid, and in today’s world of nuclear warfare, it could lead to a level of destruction never before seen.  General James Mattis was the last prevailing ‘cooler head’ in the Trump administration, and now that he has left, it seems that the little boys with their war toys know no limits.  Donald Trump, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are trying to start a war that knows no bounds … and for what?  That is a question for which I can see no answer other than … power?  People will die to stroke the egos of these “men”.  Think about it.

Open Letter to Donald Trump

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Disclaimer:  This is a rant that is much needed in order to preserve my own sanity. 

Mr. Trump,

I have not written to you since last June, and frankly had hoped that I would never have occasion to write to you again.  However, you haven’t learned a damn thing and cannot seem to keep your mouth closed and your thumbs off your tweety-machine, and thus I am once again compelled to write.

Two issues need to be addressed.  The first is your attempt to denigrate Senator John McCain, a true hero.  Yes, Donnie, Senator McCain is a war hero … you can choose to believe what you wish, for that is your right, but it is not … I repeat it is NOT your right to publicly make the sort of statements that you have been making which strike grief in the hearts of every person in this nation, but especially Senator McCain’s family.

John McCain’s plane was shot down by a missile on October 26th, 1967 and he was severely injured and taken prisoner.  Tortured daily, he nonetheless refused the early release that was offered to him by the North Vietnamese, stating “I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy”.  This, Mr. Trump, was a man of honour.  Meanwhile, where were you?  Oh yes, that’s right … your daddy paid a doctor to lie and say you had blisters, or some such thing, and thereby you were able to dodge the draft, while Senator McCain was being tortured in a POW camp.  I hope you understand when I tell you that Senator John McCain was a thousand times better man than you will ever be.  Perhaps you could learn about being a man by reading this wonderful tribute to Senator McCain.   Whatever you do, stop causing his family grief!  This is beneath even you, and makes you look the fool, not him.

Now, about those sanctions against North Korea and your buddy Kim.  Let me make myself perfectly clear, on behalf not only of myself, but on behalf of the entire nation:  You do not own the United States of America.  You are an employee of the people.  Your job is to do that which is in the best interest of the nation in accordance with the law of the land.  The United States Department of Treasury, under your own choice, Steve Mnuchin, imposed additional sanctions on North Korea just yesterday.  Those sanctions were determined by people who understand far more than you, to be just and appropriate.  It is not … I repeat it is NOT … your place to rescind those sanctions!

You have proven, twice now, that you are incapable of convincing Kim Jong-un to relinquish his nuclear weapons program and have made yourself look a fool to both North Koreans and your own fellow-citizens.  Cease and desist, already!  Admit your defeat and move along now. Leave these crucial negotiations to those who know what they are doing.

These latest sanctions were against two Chinese shipping companies for their role in evading U.N. sanctions against North Korea.  Every indication is that the sanctions were just and proper.  Who the Sam hell do you think you are to decide otherwise, against the opinion of experts?  When asked to explain this dangerous action on your part, your own spokesperson, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, could only come up with “Trump likes Kim”.  Right … you like Rodrigo Duterte and Vladimir Putin, too.  You overstepped your bounds on this one, Donnie.

There is so much more I could address here, but it would fill several volumes, so I leave it with these two.  I realize that you believe you are popular, but among the majority, among thinking people, you are not.  You are a pariah.  You did not win the election, you won only the electoral college.  You are not a president, but rather a moron sitting in the chair that was occupied by presidents, men of intellect, for many years before you.  The best thing you could do for this nation today would be resign, but as I realize your egotism will not allow you to do that, then please do the next best thing for the remainder of your sole term:  Sit down, shut up, and do nothing.  Let the rest of government function in its own right without your interference.

Sincerely,

Jill Dennison, citizen, voter, taxpayer, member in good standing of We The People

Darkness

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Well, folks, it is finally here, the day we had all hoped would give us our lives back, Wednesday, 20 January 2021.  Inauguration Day.  Or what would have been inauguration day.  Instead, it’s just another day of life in a nearly four million square mile prison.

Remember how excited we were a year ago?  Or even a few short months ago?  It was an election year, Trump’s base had dwindled to a scant 30% or so, and all the polls were predicting a huge win for the democratic team of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  For the first time since Barack Obama left office the majority of us were once again hopeful.  Hopeful that the United States would re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, would re-implement regulations on the coal, oil, gas, auto and other industries to cut way back on carbon emissions.  We would Tear Down That Wall that was built without our consent or advice last year.  We had hope that our voices would once again be heard and count for something.

Then came that fateful Friday, November 1st 2020 … just four short days before the election.  I remember waking to see the blue light flashing on my phone, reaching for glasses and phone, nearly knocking the lamp off the night table in the process.  I immediately knew something terrible had happened, for there were “Breaking News!” updates … no less than five of them … from WaPo, NYT, Reuters, The Guardian, and my local news station.

“Breaking News!  Donald Trump has declared a State of National Emergency, claiming that North Korea is planning to launch nuclear missiles aimed at the United States.” 

My heart stopped, but not because I was afraid of North Korea lobbing nukes at us.  Heck, they couldn’t hit their target if they tried, and although tensions had been on the rise between our two countries, there had been nothing to indicate this level of conflict. In fact, my best guess is that the tensions were manufactured by Trump and Kim Jong-un. No, I was afraid for another reason.  I knew.  I just knew that the next move, or the one after that, would be to ‘postpone’ or cancel next week’s elections.  Trump, after all, studied under the best … Putin and Erdoğan.

And then, sure enough, like clockwork on Monday morning, the day before what would have been election day, more breaking news …

“Breaking News!  Donald Trump has announced that tomorrow’s elections will be postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing threat of war by North Korea.  Stay tuned …”

And a few hours later, this …

“Breaking News!  There has been an unsubsta …

Then nothing.  I well remember trying to log onto The Washington Post … nothing but a little circle twirling round and round, and finally … “This site cannot be reached at this time – please try again later.”  The New York Times … same thing.  I tried BBC, Reuters and about ten other news sites … nothing. I stepped outside … the world looked normal … no tanks in the street, no sound of military jets overhead, no big mushroom clouds on the horizon.  But the world was not normal and never would be again.Democracy dies in darknessI paced.  I texted my daughter … no reply.  I tried to call her … no answer.  I simply had to know what was happening!  I tried Facebook … I was able to log on, and everything appeared normal, but there were no recent posts by any of my friends, and when I tried to use Messenger to get a message to one of my friends in the UK, a message popped up saying “This service is temporarily unavailable.”

In the two-and-a-half months since that fateful day, we have been largely isolated from any credible news.  I am occasionally able to receive worried emails from friends in the UK, Australia and Canada telling me what little they know, but those messages are few and far between, and they bring no hope – only more despair.  Life goes on.  I clean house, cook, and most of all I’ve kept writing.  The grocery stores and shopping malls are still open, and one could almost believe that this is all a figment of my imagination.  People seem to go on about their daily business without even noticing.  Perhaps I appear that way too.

I have written every day, although WordPress was shut down in early November, so my words are silent cries.  Today would have seen the inauguration of President Joe Biden had our republic been allowed to survive the reign of Donald Trump.  I can no longer live in this nation, a nation where we are no longer free people.  I am leaving my writings from the past months in the hands of my daughter, in hopes that someday she can find a way to send them to a friend across the pond who will know what to do with them.  Rest in Peace, United States of America.

United States of America, July 4, 1776 – November 5, 2020liberty cries

Note to readers:  The above is, I hope, a work of fiction, a figment of my over-active mind.  Let’s all do whatever we can to keep it a work of fiction and never let this become our reality.

Another Open Letter to Donald Trump

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Mr. Trump,

Once again it seems that I need to set you straight on a few things.  You are rather like the child who has been allowed to play with the bully down the street, and now you are beginning to act like him.

On Tuesday you met with Kim Jong-un, the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea as it is commonly called.  You seem to have come home with some wildly mistaken notions about both Kim and your own role in the U.S.  I am not sure why your many highly-paid advisors are failing to advise you, leaving it to me to do.  Have you simply surrounded yourself with stupid people who do not understand global relations any better than you do?

First, allow me to set the record straight.  Kim Jong-un is a dictator.  He is not elected by the people of his nation, but rather inherited his position from his father.  Kim will stay in power indefinitely until either he dies, chooses to step down, or is overthrown.  You, on the other hand, are an elected official and answer to every citizen of this nation.  Your term of office will end – sooner than later if you don’t change your attitude toward We the People.  So, when you say of Kim, “He’s the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head. Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same,” you are asking for trouble.  We are not “your people”.  We are, quite frankly, your employers!  You do not have the same power that Kim has, and never will, for the United States is a democratic republic, a nation guided by a Constitution that gives the power to the people, the citizens.  It is imperative that you understand this, for comments like that are offensive to every citizen of this nation!

Second, contrary to your inane comment, Kim Jong-un does not “love his people”.  In order to consolidate his power, Kim had his uncle executed and ordered the murder of his half-brother.  There are as many as 100,000 people being held in gulags in slave-like conditions in North Korea. These are not murderers, thieves or rapists – they are simply people who crossed Kim in one way or another. He orders public executions and allows ‘his people’ to starve to death.  And have you forgotten Otto Warmbier?  Mr. Warmbier was a 22-year-old U.S. citizen who was held prisoner in North Korea for over a year on orders by your buddy Kim. Warmbier’s crime?  Trying to steal a propaganda poster. Last year, he was sent back to the U.S. in a coma and died just a few days later.  Remember way back when you called Kim a ‘madman’ and a ‘killer’?  You were spot on then, but now you are either blind, stupid or simply don’t care about the human race.  Which is it?

Third, your treatment of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is despicable.  You have acted just as I would expect a five-year-old child to act – a spoiled brat!  Trudeau has, I’m certain, bit his tongue on more than one occasion, has tried very hard to be nice to you and to compromise on issues such as trade between our two nations.  But it seems that the word ‘compromise’ is not in your vocabulary and you insist on a game of winner-take-all, where you are the winner.  That is not how politics work, not how international relations work, and is not, in fact, how life works.  Your parents must have been very self-focused people, for they failed to teach you manners, failed to teach you that there are other people in this world and that life is not all about you and what you want.  While you were campaigning for the office you now hold, you said one of your goals was to make America safer, and yet, by pushing away all our allies, you have done just the opposite.  You brag and take credit for a strong economy, for low unemployment numbers, even though they are not yours to take credit for, but allow me to speculate that since you have imposed unreasonable tariffs on Mexico, Canada, the EU, and China, that economy will not remain strong for much longer.  I anticipate prices of goods and services will rise, people will be unable to afford to buy those goods and services, companies will lose money and begin laying off people, and there you have it – a new recession.  And believe me when I say that you will deserve every bit of the credit for that!

To summarize, Mr. Trump, you are doing a lousy job as leader of the United States.  Were it up to the majority in this nation, you would be fired today, but democratic processes take time.  I realize that you are not much of a reader, but the best advice I can give you at this time is to read about the French King Louis XVI and the fate that befell him for ignoring the needs of “his people”.

Sincerely,

Jill E Dennison, citizen/voter

Appeasement

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

This morning I came across a post by fellow-blogger Erik Hare, writing as Barataria, that made much sense to me and I wanted to share it with you. I have not yet written about the summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, because I am taking time to step back and let time give me a better perspective than I initially had. Erik’s thoughtful post puts the summit and its results into perspective, I think, and gives us some things to consider. Thank you, Erik, both for the post and permission (implied) to share.

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

When Neville Chamberlain returned from the Munich Conference with Adolf Hitler in September 1938, he believed he had an answer to his primary question. “What does Mr. Hitler want?” was on the mind of the Prime Minister going into the meeting, and it colored all of the proceedings.

The perception was that Germany was wronged in the Versailles Treaty and that Hitler, as the leader, was simply acting in his own nation’s interest. Chamberlain completely neglected the growing body of evidence that Hitler was indeed a psychopath who had his own interests in mind and was simply using Germany as a tool.

Diplomacy is always complicated, but with such people it is even moreso. More than seeking the right answers, it often becomes critical to ask the right questions in the first place.

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N Korea Is Responding To John Bolton’s Hard Line Rhetoric For Libya Style Deal

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary

Yesterday, the North Korean government announced that the summit scheduled for next month between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump may not come to pass. Frankly, this news did not surprise me one bit, as when the meeting was first announced, I made a bet with myself as to which leader would be the first to find fault and cancel the meeting. Frankly, I lost the bet, for I thought it would be the petulant Trump who would cancel first. Our friend Gronda has done a fine job of bringing us up to date on the situation as it presently stands, and the reasons for North Korea’s stance, and so I am sharing her excellent post, rather than re-invent the wheel. Please take a few minutes to read, for this is a situation that is likely to be volatile for some time to come, and we need to be aware. Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

Image result for photos of john bolton JOHN BOLTON

Well the inevitable happened. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has just put the US on notice that the talks scheduled between the republican Donald Trump and he for June 2018 may not happen. A top level Korean official, Kim Kye-gwan specifically took aim at the president’s new National Security Advisor John Bolton’s advertising this past weekend of May 12, 2018 that the US is anticipating a Libya type deal. In the Libya scenario, its former Leader Gaddafi gave up his nuclear stockpile only to end up brutally murdered as a result of US intervention.

This hiccup was to be expected as it is in line with what had happened in past attempts of US to construct a peace agreement with N Korea, going back decades.  The planned summit will likely go forward but it behooves the president…

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The Three Kims …

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary

In the early hours of the morning on Thursday, May 10th, three men arrived back on U.S. soil after having been held in prisons in North Korea.  I am happy the men have been released and returned to their families, but I am disgusted by the way the situation was used as a political tool, so I had no intention of writing a post about it.  However, a friend, rawgod, asked me a series of questions about the situation that I didn’t know the answers to, yet they were good questions, so I reversed my original idea and am writing this post to answer those questions and provide whatever other information I can.

The questions:

  1. How many Americans are currently in NK prisons? How many of those are political prisoners? How many foreign nationals are in NK prisons? How many of those are political prisoners?

  2. Who are these three prisoners that were released? Are they poor people, middle class, or part of the American elite? What were their “crimes”? What were their sentences? Why were they chosen for release over those who were not chosen?

  3. What did the Orange Trumphole give up in order to get these three people released? Was it a “good faith” showing from Kim, or was it a trade, or what. Was money involved in the negotiation? We’re arms involved in any way in the negotiation?

  4. Who approached who to start this negotiation? Was the US negotiator the acter, or the reacter? Was there any other country involved in this negotiation? Who, and what part did they play?

First, let me start off by introducing these three men who, coincidentally all have the same surname, Kim, but are not related.

Kim Dong-chulKim Dong-chul is a businessman and naturalized American citizen from the Virginia suburbs of Washington. Arrested in October 2015, he had been sentenced to 10 years’ hard labor in April 2016 after being convicted of spying and other offenses. He had confessed to committing crimes against the country and pleaded for mercy.  In January 2016, he was allowed to do an interview with CNN, in which he said he used to run a trading and hotel services company in Rason, a special economic zone that North Korea operates near its borders with China and Russia. He also said he had begun spying on behalf of “South Korean conservative elements” in 2013, by bribing North Korean residents to collect data about the North’s military and its nuclear program. He said he was arrested in October while he was meeting one of his local sources, a former North Korean soldier.

Kim Sang-dukKim Sang-duk (also known as Tony Kim) had just finished spending a month teaching accounting at a Christian-funded school, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, when in April 2017 he was arrested as he boarded a plane for home. He was charged with “hostile criminal acts with an aim to subvert the country.”

Kim Hak-songKim Hak-song was born in China near the North Korean border and emigrated to the United States in the 1990s.  He later returned to China, and later settled in Pyongyang, North Korea.  At the time of his arrest in May 2017, he had been volunteering at the agricultural research farm of the same school where Kim Sang-duk had taught.

These three were the last remaining hostages from the U.S. in North Korea.  The only other foreign nationals still being detained in North Korea are four South Koreans.  At least one had confessed to spying.  Over the years, North Korea has detained several Americans on accusations of illegal entry or spying and other “anti-state” crimes. It has often permitted them to speak to outside news media in interviews or at news conferences in Pyongyang.

They invariably confessed to committing crimes and apologized, asking North Korea for leniency and urging their governments to facilitate their release. But some told reporters after their release that officials had coerced them into making such statements.  I cannot say whether any of the three were guilty of the crimes with which they were charged, and I suspect we will never know for certain.

It does not appear that any concessions were exchanged for the release of the hostages.  It seems to be an act of ‘good faith’ on the part of Kim Jong-un, but … I have a suspicious nature, and somehow I cannot help but wonder if Kim, not Donald, is the one doing the manipulating.  The goals, I believe, that North Korea hopes to meet in his ‘summit’ with Trump in June are, a) to have the sanctions imposed by the U.S. lifted, and b) to have less U.S. involvement in the Korean Peninsula.

Pompeo clearly said that sanctions would not be lifted in a piecemeal fashion, but that Kim would have to fully de-nuclearize before sanctions would be lifted.  In any case, neither Kim nor Trump have a history of honesty and integrity, so from either perspective, I would be leery.  Seeing is believing. Based on the information I could find, the negotiations for the hostages were simply between Pompeo (acting at the direction of Trump, no doubt), and Kim.  South Korean or Japanese leaders may have had input, but I can find nothing to indicate this.

And now that I’ve given you all the pertinent facts I can glean, please allow me to editorialize for just a moment here.  I think it was crass, vulgar and in poor taste for Donald Trump to turn the hostages’ arrival back in the U.S. into a photo-opportunity, a back-patting (himself) session.  It was 3:00 a.m.  These men had been in-flight for hours, and before that had been in forced labour camps for between 1-3 years.  I’m sure all they wanted was to see their families, but no, instead they were forced to be put on display like a performing animal in a circus, and to pander to a megalomaniac.

trump takes creditTrump credits himself with the hostages’ release, but in truth, he had little to do with it.  He also said he had succeeded in getting them released, where Obama had failed.  But two of the three were taken hostage under Trump’s watch, in 2017.  Trump has also said he believes he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for getting the hostages released.  Here is a list of hostages released from North Korea under the Obama administration:

Euna Lee
Laura Ling
Robert Park
Aijalon Gomes
Eddie Yong Su Jun
Merrill Newman
Jeffrey Fowle
Kenneth Bae
Matthew Miller
Sandra Suh
Arturo Pierre Martinez hostages releasedKim Jong-un is a dictator and releasing the hostages was a means to an end.  It was a display of good faith, if you wish to call it such, but on Kim’s part, not Trump’s or Pompeo’s.  And it was not done out of kindness, but rather diplomatic negotiations.