Keep Calm and Summit On

Last Tuesday, North Korea canceled a high-level diplomatic meeting with South Korea and threatened to call off next month ’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. North Korea’s statements came just one week afterSecretary of State Mike Pompeo returned from Pyongyang with three American citizens held prisoner by the Kim regime and thedate for the Trump-Kim summit in hand.The current episode of tension reflects a wide and dangerous expectation gap between the United States and North Korea, but it should not dissuade the Trump administration from going through with the summit.If the Trump administration wants to take away the right lessons from North Korea ’s display of anger it needs to first understand the root cause of North Korea’s ire. When Pyongyang announced that it was calling off a high-level diplomatic meeting with South Korea it cited theU.S.-South Korea military exercise known as “Max Thunder,” a large-scale air force exercise that has occurred every year since 2009, as the culprit.A statement released by state broadcaster KCNA said, “The maneuver [Max Thunder] is the largest-ever and a reflection of the invariable stand of the U.S. and south (sic) Korea to persist in the ‘maximum pressure and sanctions’ against the DPRK.” In particular, North Korea objected to U.S. F-22 fighters and B-52 bombers participating in the exe rcise, as the former can easily penetrate North Korean airspace with little chance of detection and the latter is nuclear...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs