Bloomberg : “Satellite-imagery analysis and leaked American intelligence suggest North Korea has churned out rockets and warheads as quickly as ever in the year since Kim halted weapons tests, a move that led to his June summit with Trump. The regime probably added several intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear proliferation analysts say, with one arms control group estimating that Kim gained enough fissile material for about six more nuclear bombs, bringing North Korea’s total to more than 20.”
"It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions"! ???? So Treasury acts on their own in these matters? Was it scheduled? Ya lost me Trumpy. I'll wait for the Cliff notes I guess.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/world/asia/north-korea-sanctions.html Trump Overrules Own Experts on Sanctions, in Favor to North Korea WASHINGTON — President Trump undercut his own Treasury Department on Friday with a sudden announcement that he had rolled back newly imposed North Korea sanctions, appearing to overrule national security experts as a favor to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. It was initially believed that Mr. Trump had confused the day that the North Korea sanctions were announced, and officials said they were caught off guard by the president’s tweet. Asked for clarification, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined to give specifics. “President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” she said. This was a comedy:
North Korea tested a new type of tactical guided weapon, CNBC reports. “The test of ‘a powerful warhead’ was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and marks the first public weapons test from the rogue regime since President Trump’s historic meeting with Kim in Singapore last year.” Washington Post: “It was not immediately clear what type of weapon was fired, but the move would mark the first weapons test since President Trump’s summit with Kim in Hanoi in February and a sign of public defiance by Kim following a stalemate in the high-stakes denuclearization talks.”
Short range. Who cares. Nothing that conventional artillery couldn't do. Its the difference between attacking Seoul with a scalpel vs. a chainsaw. You need your maga pills. Mmmmaaa-mmmaa-mmmma-mmma... ... Mmm--- Maga!
Kim demands the removal of 'reckless and immature' Pompeo from talks. North Korea demands Pompeo’s removal from US nuclear talks North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from talks over its banned nuclear programme, hours after the isolated state claimed to have tested a new kind of weapon. Describing Pompeo as “reckless” and immature, the foreign ministry said it wanted him replaced by another interlocutor, a demand that significantly ups the ante in a sensitive diplomatic standoff. “I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,” Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the ministry’s Department of American Affairs said, according to the official KCNA news agency.
It makes no sense to negotiate with NK about denuclearization, after Iraq and Lybia examples our administrations set, he would be total nuts to give up nukes because he knows, without nukes, next or the one after next administrations will take him out. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this very complex problem.