U.N. Report on North Korea Tells a Tale of Continued Nuclear Ambitions
Patsy Trump failed again.
by Susan_Wright
President Trump's handshake deal with a dictator amounted to nothing but propaganda for the regime.
Let’s get a show of hands of anyone who is shocked – shocked, I tell you – that everything everyone with even the most basic knowledge of North Korea has said would come of President Trump’s summit with North Korea dictator, Kim Jong Un, has actually occurred.
Trump emerged from that meeting with nothing more than a handshake deal with a murderer and a liar, and has been praising him profusely, ever since.
[ Actually Trumpy achieved more. He cut military exercises with SK and its likely that will stay cut. Trump hates America's allies. ]
Meanwhile, the only ones to benefit from it were North Korea and Kim, who now have the legitimacy on the world stage they’ve long craved, but wiser, better world leaders have denied them, due to the oppressive and tyrannical nature of the regime.
Trump’s glowing talk, filled with propaganda-ready talking points, conjured up an image of a kind, brilliant, loving “dear leader,” adored and revered by the same people who are starving in his nation, or imprisoned, enslaved, or scared to death that they might be caught in possession of a Bible verse.
It has been mentioned here before, but on Friday, Reuters reported on a confidential United Nations report that states North Korea is in violation of U.N. sanctions, as they have pushed on with their nuclear and missile program.
So, no. The “great negotiator,” Trump, had zero effect on Kim.
The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late on Friday.
“(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018,” the experts wrote in the 149-page report.
Besides their military cooperation with Syria, they’re also trying to sell weapons to Yemen’s Houthis.
In other words, these rogue, bad actors on the world stage continue to be rogue, bad actors. The only one buying the act, however, is Donald Trump.
He’s the perfect patsy for tyrants in the world.
The report comes as Russia and China suggest the Security Council discuss easing sanctions after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for the first time in June and Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization.
Of course they did.
For now, the United States is insisting those sanctions stay in place until they see some cooperation from Pyongyang.
And by “the United States,” I mean everybody working around Trump, and attempting to maintain some semblance of a competently operated government, in spite of Trump.
The U.N. experts said illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in international waters had “increased in scope, scale and sophistication.” They said a key North Korean technique was to turn off a ship’s tracking system, but that they were also physically disguising ships and using smaller vessels.
The Security Council has unanimously sanctioned North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
The experts said “prohibited military cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic has continued unabated.” They said North Korean technicians engaged in ballistic missile and other banned activities have visited Syria in 2011, 2016 and 2017.
North Korea has been finding ways to work around those sanctions from the beginning, and they’re dealing with a lot of nasty characters, in order to make things work.
Our president should not continue to praise Kim Jong Un.
themaven.net |
