Korean Peace Postponed

Every year, the US and South Korea hold large-scale mock invasion military drills and every year Kim goes nuts about it. This has been the #1 complaint from DPRK in their relations to RoK/US.

The 'Max Thunder' military exercise began on Friday and is scheduled to continue for two weeks. It will include around 100 aircraft, including F-15Ks, F-16s, and F-22 radar-evading fighter jets. They hold it in the North end of South Korea, near the border.

In response to the drill, a high-level meeting between North & South Korea was cancelled today, hours before it was set to start and the meeting with Trump on June 12 was threatened.

Within hours, the US said it may down-scale the drill by removing the B52 bomber contingent.

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In the preliminary talks a month ago, the 2 Koreas signed the "Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula".....

The two Koreas agreed to completely stop all hostile acts against each other on land, in sea and air that are the source of military tension and conflict.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/27/c_137142236.htm

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US National Security Adviser John Bolton's rhetoric probably didn't help - demanding complete demasculation of NK's military before they'll receive any benefit. That's just not going to work. NK has no reason no trust the US.

2018-05-13

Bolton said the United States is pursuing a standard of "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" heading into negotiations.

"On the denuclearization side of the program, that means all aspects of their nuclear program," he added. "Clearly, the ballistic missiles program, as with Iran, with the intention of being a delivery system for nuclear weapons -- that's gotta go.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/13/politics/john-bolton-north-korea-cnntv/index.html

2018-05-16

"If the US is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue,” first vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan said in a statement carried by state media.

Pyongyang had “made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearisation is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States”, minister Kim said.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2146294/north-korea-threatens-cancel-trump-kim-summit-and-suspends