Thread by @BenjaminNorton

This is huge: North and South Korea agreed to have their athletes march together under a unified Korea flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and to field a joint women's ice hockey team.
nytimes.com/2018/01/17/wor…

Let's be clear: This move toward rapprochement in Korea is *despite* Trump's genocidal threats, not because of them. While the Trump administration threatens to obliterate the North, the DPRK said it wants to negotiate and South President Moon Jae-in has pushed for reconciliation

Reminder: "North Korea has been saying over and over again that it might put its nuclear weapons and missiles on the negotiating table if the US would end its own threatening posture.

"This fact has been completely obscured by US and other western media" theintercept.com/2017/08/25/nor…

North Korea has repeatedly told the US it would impose a moratorium on nuclear tests if Washington canceled its joint annual military exercises with South Korea, to help promote dialogue.

The US has repeatedly rejected this offer.
nytimes.com/2015/01/11/wor…

The US doesn't want peace:

"Vice President Mike Pence will deride any notion of normalizing North Korea's relationships with the outside world while he leads the US delegation at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea."
cnn.it/2nGFtlP

During the Olympic games, Vice President Pence will "make clear that the maximum pressure of the Kim regime will only intensify," a White House official said.

The US is doing everything it can to prevent peace and rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula.
cnn.it/2nGFtlP

While trying to prevent rapprochement and peace on the Korean Peninsula, VP Pence said the US is going to impose "the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever."

The sanctions are already brutal. This is strangulation.
reuters.com/article/us-oly…

While the US is trying to prevent peace and ramp up sanctions, Pope Francis said the joint participation of Korean athletes in the Olympics raised hopes for reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula and that the Vatican was ready to back any peace initiative. reuters.com/article/us-oly…

Warmongering child / US Vice President Pence skipped an Olympics dinner with multiple Asian leaders because North Korea would have been represented at it too. theguardian.com/world/2018/feb…

The Trump administration's concerted campaign at the Olympics to sabotage peace efforts and prevent rapprochement between South and North Korea has been utterly failing. nymag.com/daily/intellig…