[From Sep 7, 2019]
"WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged Friday that North Korea has the right to defend itself and assured Pyongyang of Washington's security guarantees should the regime dismantle its nuclear weapons program."
m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20…
2/"Those nuclear weapon systems that North Korea has been driving towards for decades now don't provide the security that the North Koreans believe they do," he said in the interview. "In fact, what will provide them security is coming to a set of understandings with the United
3/"States and with the world to denuclearize. And when they do so, we'll provide the security assurances that are needed for them and for their people. Every nation has the sovereign right to defend itself. Then we can create economic opportunity and better lives for the people
4/"of North Korea as well."

I agree w/ Pompeo that indeed: "Every nation has the sovereign right to defend itself." But I disagree w/ his assertion that DPRK's nuclear deterrent doesn't "provide the security that the North Koreans believe they" have. I'll refer Mike to
5/Deterrence Theory 101, Chapter 7: Building Second Strike Capability to Deter a Preemptive Nuclear First Strike. If the US were to try regime change, decapitation strike or preemptive nuclear first strike on DPRK (John Bolton's advice), they will darn sure have teeth in their
6/military response which must frustrate the Pentagon to no end. You can almost hear it saying: "Come on DPRK, play nice. Give up your nukes so we can take over your country. Make it easy for us." There's no pulling the wool over DPRK's eyes; they've finally wised up to the US.
7/This 👇statement belies the condescension built into a superpower superiority complex:
"...we'll provide the security assurances that are needed for them and for their people…Then we can create economic opportunity and better lives for the people."
D.C.'s so thick-headed it
8/hasn't yet dawned on it that perhaps DPRK, which lives by the Juche ideology of self-reliance, MIGHT WANT TO CREATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ITS OWN WAY, a socialist way, and not be "helped" like they're a basket case (which US/UN clearly want DPRK to be, the raison d'être of
9/of sanctions: "Please, DPRK, collapse! Collapse! Do we have to add MORE sanctions?") The US's habitual practice of "democracy building" has met w/ fierce headwinds from a small nuclear socialist state that eschews the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie" for socialist collective.
10/Mike's words: "Every nation has the sovereign right to defend itself." are reassuring. If this IS a bedrock core belief of Washington's, then living w/ a limited nuclear DPRK might be around the corner, & US would focus on the sane path of civilized nations: threat reduction.
11/Forgot to mention that in Pompeo's statement the two components are mutual exclusive:
I) DPRK's right to defend itself
II) US promise of "security guarantees should the regime dismantle its nuclear weapons program"
You can't have both. DPRK can choose I or II. It has chosen I.

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More from @BonicMichael

6 May
Hello Washington
@JoeBiden
@POTUS
@VP
@HouseForeign
I think you're going to need more in your arsenal of negotiating strategies if you don't want DPRK to slam the door on you. The CVID of North Korea is ballast that must be discarded for diplomacy to make progress.
2/What are the balloons and sandbags in the US's diplomatic efforts to reach stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula?

Balloons and Sandbags: a technique to identify things holding down your innovation efforts
ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskill…
3/An objective solution can be reached. The "ballast" of the US not deviating from the CVID of DPRK (which many analysts advise against) is a monkey wrench sabotaging the diplomatic path to stability and peace on the KP, the "balloon".
Read 11 tweets
6 May
“work together toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”
"fully implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions"
"cooperating to strengthen deterrence"
“complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment” of DPRK’s nukes and ballistic missiles
nknews.org/2021/05/washin…
2/That's it? That's the North Korea Policy Review? Not an iota of negotiating strategy. Conspicuous by absence: security guarantees, peace declaration. A new acronym CVIA: the "complete, verifiable & irreversible abandonment" of DPRK's nukes. New grade: C-
giphy.com/gifs/dosequisg…
3/There's also this: “We remain deeply preoccupied by the precarious humanitarian situation in the country, which is the result of the DPRK regime’s choice to prioritize its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs over the welfare of its own people."
Read 12 tweets
6 May
I wonder if
@HouseForeign
@VP
@AOC
@POTUS
@WhiteHouse
@TheBlueHouseENG
could ever recognize the TRUTH even when it was right in their faces?

I Missed You, My School: PYONGYANG TOUR SERIES. Narrated by North Korea'... via @YouTube
2/The highly social DPRK society isn’t as it is portrayed by Western media.
3/Children are cherished and their education is invested in.
Read 13 tweets
6 May
Just so you know, IFF a Biden Admin thinks of staging a military attack against the sovereign socialist state of DPRK, they're not backing down.
@POTUS
@WhiteHouse
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down (Official Music Video) via @YouTube
2/Clearly Washington doesn't comprehend how a socialist system works, and doesn't understand how nuclear deterrence works. If you had any brains, you'd end the Korean War and ratify a peace treaty. Your fear is IRRATIONAL. You're mistaking a coiled rope in the night for a snake.
3/The danger's all in your mind. DPRK wants peace & it has the sovereign right to defend itself against US threats of regime change, decapitation strike or preemptive nuclear first strike. You can fool the People but you won't fool God. Tom Petty's song is exactly how DPRK feels.
Read 6 tweets
6 May
Pentagon is Fearmongering in DC over DPRK’s justified Nukes

“The U.S. military must be prepared as North Korea continues to pursue nuclear, chemical & biological weapons, a high-level Pentagon official told a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing.”
nknews.org/2021/05/us-for…
2/“North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons jeopardizes international stability and weakens the global nonproliferation regime,” wrote Walsh, warning that American joint armed forces should be ready if Kim Jong Un “[seeks] to employ weapons of
3/"mass destruction (WMD) in the course of or to stave off a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.”
She wrote that the Pentagon will work with allies to “deter and delay North Korea’s WMD ambitions,” adding that Washington plans to train U.S. forces how to fight in conditions where
Read 5 tweets
5 May
WHERE IS YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH, SEOUL?👇

"On April 1, a small South Korean publisher made available all eight volumes of Kim Il Sung’s “With the Century,” which was first released in North Korea in 1992 and has been available in several other countries."
wsj.com/articles/north…
2/Moon's Sunshine Policy really reeks of hypocrisy. Not allowing South Korean citizen's to read Pyongyang literature under the NSL erects an impenetrable invisible barrier that will keep Korean's perpetually divided. This makes "reunification" talk code for One Blue Korea.
3/Why doesn't Seoul officially recognize DPRK as a sovereign socialist state? The fighting's stopped and you don't want it to start up again. Seoul DID NOT WIN the Korean War. So it's time to end it and RECOGNIZE the sovereignty of DPRK.☮️ means 2 countries coexisting peacefully.
Read 5 tweets

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