Pirate's Cove

If this is all Kim Jong-un wants, along with one other thing, it’s a bargain

Kim Says He’ll Give Up Weapons if U.S. Promises Not to Invade

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday.

In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site.

The comments by Mr. Kim were made on Friday when the leaders of the two Koreas met at Panmunjom, a village on their shared border, the spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, said on Sunday, providing additional details of the meeting.

“I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States,” Mr. Kim told Mr. Moon, according to Mr. Yoon’s account of the meeting.

Actually, he is the kind of guy who might do that. We should never lose fact of him being a brutal, murderous, violent, repressive, torturous dictator running a country along those lines. This country which barely has electricity and food has a massive army, with quite a bit of regular, chemical, and biological weapons, most of which are aimed at South Korea and Japan with all their short and medium range artillery and rockets. The capital of South Korea, Seoul, has a population of over 10 million. Add in the millions who live around Seoul and in places like Inchon and the rest of the northern part of S. Korea, all within 40 miles of the DMZ, an easy range for missiles and artillery, and you could have a significant death toll within the first hours, much less days.

So, really, promising not to invade is no big deal. If we were going to hit North Korea, it would be through a massive strike hitting NK’s nuclear facilities as well as their forces that can attack South Korea and Japan via cruise missile strikes and the use of stealth bombers. It wouldn’t be a pinpoint strike on a few places. And there would still be a concern that NK would get off some missiles which could easily kill tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, quickly.

We wouldn’t be invading with ground troops, at least to start. So a pledge to not invade for NK giving up all their nuclear weapons and associated research and facilities? OK.

And, any promise from Trump could be ended if North Korea failed to live up to their end of the bargain. Declaring an end to the Korean war? OK. It can always restart if North Korea wants to get frisky.

Mr. Kim even vowed to readjust his country’s clock to match the time zone in South Korea.

In 2015, North Korea created its own time zone — “Pyongyang time” — and set its clocks 30 minutes behind those of South Korea, Japan and other neighbors. That has since created confusion among officials from both Koreas when they tried to schedule their meetings, such as the summit meeting on Friday.

“When I was sitting in the waiting room, I saw two clocks on the wall, one of the Seoul time and the other of the Pyongyang time, and I felt bad about it,” Mr. Kim was quoted as telling Mr. Moon. “Why don’t we reunify our clocks first?”

The big question is “how serious is Kim?” Is this simply a game being played by him, as he and his father have done many, many times? Or, can something big happen? And, could that be turned into North Korea becoming a better nation? Only time will tell.