dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

'Chilling the atmosphere': North Korea media condemns U.S. Democrats ahead of summit

HANOI (Reuters) - North Korea’s state media criticized U.S. Democrats and American intelligence officials on Sunday for “chilling the atmosphere” ahead of leader Kim Jong Un’s second summit with President Donald Trump this week.

After weeks of silence about the summit in Vietnam, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA on Sunday announced Kim’s departure by train, en route to talks in which the two leaders aim to build on a commitment to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, reached at their first meeting in Singapore in June.

KCNA later issued a commentary arguing that if Trump listened to skeptics at home, he could face a “shattered dream” and “miss the rare historic opportunity” to improve relations with North Korea.

“The Democratic Party of the U.S. and other opponents to the negotiations move overtly and covertly to disrupt them as supported by scepticism backed by all sorts of groundless stories and misinformation even at such a crucial moment as now,” said the commentary, which was released under the name Jong Hyon.

Trump’s opponents would bear the responsibility if the summit failed to achieve results, which would leave the U.S. people exposed to “security threats”, it said.

In some parts, the article appeared to echo Trump’s own recent talking points, which have blamed former President Barack Obama for taking the two countries to the brink of war.

Obama’s “strategic patience” policy was “the worst blunder”, KCNA said, arguing that Democrats’ scepticism of Trump was driven by a desire to cover up their failures.

“The Democratic Party seems not realizing itself lurching toward conservative, being lost to its own ‘authenticity’ at the end of getting indulged in opposition just for the sake of opposition,” the article said.

One U.S. government Korea analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the commentary appeared aimed at softening Trump up ahead of the summit.

“If Kim facilitates Trump using the talk for domestic political gain, he probably thinks Trump will offer him more favorable terms,” the analyst said.

“If not offer more favorable terms, (Trump will) at least be less willing to walk away from the table. That would look like an admission that his critics were right all along.”

Rest here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-threats/chilling-the-atmosphere-north-korea-media-condemns-u-s-democrats-ahead-of-summit-idUSKCN1QD0AM