NBC reported late last night that North Korea is surreptitiously increasing its production of nuclear weapons fuel at multiple secret sites. www.nbcnews.com/… The sources were at least five officials in the U.S. intelligence community. The story that North Korea has thus deceived the Trump Administration and thus the United States has now been reported by many of the world's largest and most trusted news sites. See www.reuters.com/… , www.bloomberg.com/… . Watch for these major news sites besides NBC independently to confirm this story.
Upon President Trump’s return from his summit in Singapore with Kim Jung Un, Trump declared, implausibly, that North Korea was “no longer a nucelar threat.” www.cnn.com/… At and immediately after the lightening summit that lasted only 3-4 hours, Trump even agreed to stop vital tactical excercizes with U.S. ally South Korea, compromising military readiness and catching our loyal ally, South Korea, and our own military leadership, off guard and receiving nothing in return. www.nytimes.com/… With surpassing ignorance and fatuous self-promotion, Trump bragged in a tweet that “everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office." www.cnn.com/…
Indeed, merely giving North Korea the summit meeting was an enormous concession and tended to legitimatize the world’s most murderous regime, time.com/… , and Trump got nothing in return — nothing. Trump then bragged that he needed no preparation for the summit and that he would be able to tell within the first minute whether North Korea was sincere. www.wsj.com/… Thus, Trump confused smiles for good relations. He confused deadly serious, complex, and potentially planet-destroying actions with a playdate between two toddlers. And Kim, clearly better prepared, deceived Trump. And what happened to Ronald Regan’s admonition, “trust but verify”?
In normal times, this would be the biggest and most frightening story on the planet. A 35-year-old novice, who until this year never set foot outside his own country, has plainly, and with little effort, hoodwinked the President of the United States, and Trump’s naive stupidity became national policy. And this in the most dangerous arena on earth — nuclear proliferation and capability.
Trump began his North Korean policy with intemperate and volatile rhetoric, and ended in giving North Korea enormous concessions it never dreamed it would obtain. It would not have been much worse if Trump had endorsed North Korea’s nuclear program.
The stupidity and incompetence at the highest levels of our government threaten the safety of the planet. Are there any Republican patriots in Congress that will now speak up? Congressional hearings by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would, in normal times be an imperative. Where are the patriots? Sadly, not any among the Republicans in Congress save for one who is ill and at home in Arizona. Americans must be heard to call this what it is — a world danger and a national disgrace. Let our voices be heard.