ouch... https://www.axios.com/bolton-john-t...utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic Exclusive: John Bolton hits Trump for bluffing on North Korea nukes In his sharpest criticism yet of his old workplace, John Bolton suggested the Trump administration is bluffing about stopping North Korea's nuclear ambitions — and soon might need to admit publicly that its policy failed badly. Driving the news: Bolton told me in an interview that he does not think the administration "really means it" when President Trump and top officials vow to stop North Korea from having deliverable nuclear weapons — "or it would be pursuing a different course." Why now? The president's former national security adviser, who served until September, is speaking out ahead of an end-of-year timetable. If Kim Jong-un follows through on his threatened Christmas provocation, Bolton says the White House should do something "that would be very unusual" for this administration: admit they got it wrong on North Korea. "The idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is just unfortunately not true," Bolton said. For example, he said, the U.S. Navy could start intercepting oil that is illegally being transferred to North Korea at sea. As Bolton sees it, the administration now has more of a "rhetorical policy" that it's unacceptable for North Korea to have nuclear weapons that could hit America or its allies. If Kim thumbs his nose at the U.S., Bolton said, he hopes the administration will say: "We've tried. The policy's failed. We're going to go back now and make it clear that in a variety of steps, together with our allies, when we say it's unacceptable, we're going to demonstrate we will not accept it." Bolton described his concerns about Trump's North Korea strategy in an interview with Axios late last week. He went significantly further than any of his previous remarks since leaving the administration. Why it matters: Kim is back on his white horse, and the North Korean nuclear threat may be greater than ever, analysts say. North Korea has intimated it will test some kind of advanced weapons in the coming weeks — weapons it's developed as Trump has tried to woo Kim. Trump's top envoy to North Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, said recently that if North Korea follows through on that threat, it would be "most unhelpful in achieving a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula." Bolton called Biegun's statement "a late entry but a clear winner in the Understatement of the Year Award contest." Bolton, who has advocated for a more aggressive North Korea strategy, also criticized Trump for saying earlier this year that Kim's short-range missile tests don't bother him. "When the president says, 'Well, I'm not worried about short-range missiles,' he's saying, 'I'm not worried about the potential risk to American troops deployed in the region or our treaty allies, South Korea and Japan.'" The big picture: The imminent threats from North Korea seem a world away from June 2018, when Trump returned from his Singapore summit with Kim to boast, "There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea." In reality, Kim has expanded his nuclear arsenal since then, analysts say. Using data from analysts and governments around the world, Japan's Nagasaki University estimated in June that Kim now has as many as 30 nuclear warheads. That's on the lower end of estimates, and it's up from as many as 20 warheads in the same study last year. "Even though they're not testing right now, they're operating at full tempo," said Victor Cha, the National Security Council director for Asia under President George W. Bush and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Trump administration declined to comment. Between the lines: Daniel Russel, President Obama's assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said that of the two leaders —Trump and Kim — only one appears to have had a strategy. Trump broke with precedent, met twice with the isolated dictator and said "we fell in love" over "beautiful letters." Russel described Trump's approach to Kim as "magical thinking, based on a narcissistic conviction that the tractor beam of Donald Trump's charisma was going to capture the Leninist dictator and pull him into some kind of condo-developing frenzy of good behavior." Despite Trump's charm offensive, Kim's nuclear arsenal has only grown. Trump's warming of relations also signaled to China — the country with the most power to constrain Kim — that it could stop enforcing United Nations sanctions against North Korea, Russel said. Since Trump's Singapore summit with Kim, North Korea analysts including Russel and Cha have said that the economic pressure on Kim has softened noticeably. China has turned a blind eye as more money crossed the border into North Korea and more oil was illegally transferred at sea. And last week, China and Russia asked the U.N. Security Council to soften sanctions on Kim. The bottom line: "We're now nearly three years into the administration with no visible progress toward getting North Korea to make the strategic decision to stop pursuing deliverable nuclear weapons," Bolton said. "Time is on the side of the proliferator," Bolton said. "The more time there is, the more time there is to develop, test and refine both the nuclear component and the ballistic missile component of the program."
A "beautiful vase". Its lookin' like Maga... all the way into 2024 now. Told ya so H4. Trump says N. Korea may give him ‘nice Christmas gift’ instead of missile launch Kim Jong Un has threatened to take unspecified action if sanctions are not eased by year’s end; speculation has centered on possibility of nuclear warhead test By Zeke Miller 24 December 2019, 8:06 pm 0 US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un following a meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on February 27, 2019. (Saul LOEB/AFP) PALM BEACH (AP) — US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be planning to give him “a nice present,” such as a “beautiful vase” for Christmas rather than a missile launch.
74 percent of Seoul citizens think unification with N.K. necessary: poll North Korea 15:10 December 25, 2019 SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) -- Despite a recent chill in inter-Korean relations, more than seven out of 10 citizens living in Seoul still believe that South and North Korea should be unified, a survey showed Wednesday. According to an online poll of 2,000 citizens conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 74.2 percent of the respondents said that unification with North Korea is necessary. The percentage remains the same as last year. Some 70 percent said the possibility of a denuclearized North Korea remains low in the future. The survey was conducted from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. The two Koreas are technically in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. __________________________________________________ 75% want a Trump Resort and Casino on NK's East Coast.
Told me what exactly? That N.Korea's regime bluffs sometimes? I'm pretty sure I covered that under the "getting played" accusation?
U.S. flies spy planes again over Korean Peninsula amid concerns over N.K. provocations North Korea 15:49 December 26, 2019 SEOUL, Dec. 26 The United States has flown spy planes around the Korean Peninsula again, an aviation tracker said Thursday, at a time of speculation that North Korea could carry out a major provocation amid stalled denuclearization talks. According to Aircraft Spots, a RC-135S Cobra Ball plane was presumed to have carried out a surveillance mission over South Korea's East Sea after taking off from the Japanese territory of Okinawa. Another RC-135S aircraft was spotted flying in the same route later. An E-8C plane or JSTARS was also seen flying over the peninsula at some 31,000 feet, the aviation tracker said. The flights came after the U.S. flew four spy planes at the same time over the peninsula earlier this week in an unusual move to intensify its surveillance on North Korea amid concerns that the North could test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea has threatened to take a "new way" if Washington fails to come up with a new proposal in denuclearization talks before the end of this year, hinting that it otherwise will end diplomacy and revert to provocative behavior. With the deadline drawing closer, the North earlier said it is entirely up to Washington what "Christmas gift" it wants to get, spawning speculation that it might be preparing a major provocation during the holiday season this week. North Korea did not carry out a threatened "Christmas" provocation but observers say that things are not over yet, as Pyongyang could announce a major policy shift with regard to its denuclearization talks with the U.S. in a party meeting set for later this month or the New Year address its leader Kim Jong-un is to deliver. The Seoul government said that it is closely monitoring any developments in North Korea in cooperation with the U.S. and remains ready to address any possible situations. Earlier in the day, Meari, a North Korean propaganda outlet, denounced the stepped-up surveillance activities by the U.S. and South Korea on the communist state's military targets, calling them "provocative" moves.
"...Using data from analysts and governments around the world, Japan's Nagasaki University estimated in June that Kim now has as many as 30 nuclear warheads. That's on the lower end of estimates, and it's up from as many as 20 warheads in the same study last year..." Wow, he has 30 whole warheads at his disposal. Would be a bad idea for him to even think of using them. M.A.D. But NK would be on the losing side of it, so A.D.
A 50% increase in nukes in 1 year under Trump,along with building nuclear subs and improving ICBMs.What a great president.