Tuesday, May 15, 2018

BREAKING: NoKo suspends talks with SoKo over military drill

Things have gone from good to worse with North Korea as they've suspended ongoing talks with their southern counterpart due to joint U.S.--South Korean military exercises.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (aka "Rocket Man") has also called into question whether it pays for him to meet with President Trump, a move scheduled for next month in Singapore.

Last month, Kim met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in which produced a joint commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. They were scheduled for the next round of talks Wednesday afternoon. But the talks were cancelled in response to Max Thunder Drills, a 2-week exercise involving over 100 aircraft.

North Korean officials say the military exercises are an unwarranted provocation that violated both Koreas' mutual commitment to denuclearization, in what is known as the Panmunjom Declaration.

"This exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea and targeting us, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. KCNA is North Korea's state-run propaganda machine.

KCNA suggested the military exercise has jeopardized President Trump's widely anticipated meeting with Kim in June:
The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea--U.S. summit in light of this provocation military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities. We will keep a keen eye on the future attitudes of the U.S. and South Korean authorities."
The media statements ran opposite to previous reports that Kim knew of the scheduled military exercise and did not object. Of note is the fact that North Korea didn't go berserk over the exercise as they typically did in the past, suggesting the possibility that the Trump meeting may still take place.



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