February 10, 2018

While the Two Koreas Talk, Trump Is Throwing Shade

Christine Ahn: "The White House seems hell bent on hijacking an Olympic moment of inter-Korean unity... By now it’s clear that serious military plans are being drawn up to strike North Korea before its missiles can carry a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the mainland."

Published on Friday, February 09, 2018 by Foreign Policy In Focus and posted on commondreams.org
By Christine Ahn

"As South Korean and North Korean athletes walk together during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, carrying a One Korea flag, the Trump administration is actively working to undermine the good vibes flowing across the DMZ.

Last month, North Korean and South Korean leaders met for two high-level meetings to discuss how to defuse tensions that reached a boiling point last year. Relations between the two Koreas had frozen after a decade of hardline rule in South Korea, but the dangerous threat of a new Korean War prompted both Korean governments to seize the hopeful opportunity presented by the Olympics. This was soon followed by the United States agreeing to South Korea’s request to honor the Olympics Truce by postponing the joint annual spring war drills.

Many hoped that 2018 signaled a turn towards a diplomatic resolution to the Korean conflict.

Instead, last week, news emerged that the Trump administration had axed the nomination of Victor Cha for the U.S. ambassador post in South Korea — for allegedly opposing White House plans for a “bloody nose” strike on the North.

By now it’s clear that serious military plans are being drawn up to strike North Korea before its missiles can carry a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the mainland.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said that the U.S. approach to North Korea is “firmly in the diplomatic lane,” but there’s no sign of genuine diplomacy that would invite dialogue. Instead, the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign to further isolate North Korea aims to foment regime collapse by imposing ever more sanctions and forcing other countries to cut off relations with Pyongyang.

As if there were any doubt, Vice President Mike Pence announced in Japan on the eve of the Olympics that the United States would be unveiling the “toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever” — and that this policy of strangulation would be in place until its “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.”

Sanctions Against the Most Vulnerable

The North Korean economy has been built over the last 65 years to withstand the U.S. economic blockade in place since the Korean War. But the new round of sanctions, including those imposed by the UN Security Council, target major sectors of the North Korean economy that have nothing to do with nuclear weapons or missiles, or even luxury goods for the Kim regime.

According to political economist and University of Sussex Professor Kevin Gray, measures contained in the UN resolution that passed last September belie its claims that they’re “not intended to have adverse humanitarian consequences for the civilian population.” Instead of succeeding in forcing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, these U.S.-led sanctions have been hitting North Korean civilians, especially the most vulnerable.

According to a January 2018 UNICEF report, up to 60,000 North Korean children could starve as a result of the sanctions..."

Read full article here