Bolton: Denuclearization is non-negotiable -- including non-nuclear weapons

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill


BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 05/13/18 09:54 AM EDT

Link to tweet

National security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday that North Korea’s denuclearization is not negotiable — including non-nuclear weapons.

“Denuclearization is absolutely at the core of it and it means not just nuclear weapons,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“North Korea has also previously agreed … to give up its uranium reprocessing capabilities, we’ve got ballistic missiles on the table, we’ve got to look at chemical and biological weapons.

Bolton noted that North Korea had previously agreed to decommission its uranium reprocessing capabilities and that the U.S. has ballistic missiles "on the table." But, he said, the U.S. had a range of things to discuss, floating the idea of looking at chemical and biological weapons. “We want to see the denuclearization process so completely underway that it is irreplaceable,” Bolton said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/387470-bolton-says-denuclearization-is-non-negotiable-and-that-includes

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Keep moving those goal posts.

What's next? No tanks, no grenades, no rifles?

[Initech]

14. America is Lucy and North Korea is Charlie Brown.

[paleotn]

24. Actually, it's the other way around....

Lucy...um, I mean Kim isn't giving up his nukes.

[jpak]

25. Yup - Li'l Kim holds ALL the cards

Trump and Bolton are fucking fools.

[Initech]

26. Yup - they are walking into a trap.

Of course they're too stupid to realize it and it will be too late before they realize they've been had.

[RKP5637]

2. I find all of this sudden transformation by NK as strange. There is something going on under

the table IMO.

[The Wizard]

4. Their nuclear testing facility got destroyed

killing several of their scientists in the process.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Appears to be ther real story.

How many people died from Radiation Poisoning? Remember the Army defector,his body Radiation Count was of the chart.

The North Korean Bomb Tests "got away from them". Much like the 1992 Mercury Nevada test.

[Loki Liesmith]

9. It didn't

Only one tunnel was destroyed. Others appear intact. They just don’t need it any more.

Kim’s strategy is clear: get involved in protracted negotiations with token concessions, making them a de facto normal state.

[shanny]

12. Our experts think that if they attempt another test

the entire mountain will collapse (and release the radiation currently contained).

So the facility is "destroyed" as a working entity. Besides, as you point out, Kim doesn't need it anymore because he already has his weapons.

[atreides1]

16. Experts???

The problem with our experts is that they're using satellite and other forms of non-human intel gathering to come up with their conclusions.

At best they can form a theory...which is why they "think" another test will bring down the mountain, they can't it will definitely happen!

[shanny]

17. ...

"A possible tunnel collapse at Mount Mantap has long been suspected, with Chinese scientists expressing concern soon after September's large-scale nuclear test.

The US Geological Survey recorded a second seismic event about eight minutes after the test, which it assessed as a "collapse" of the cavity.

Two aftershocks were detected as late as December, prompting concerns about the stability of the surrounding mountains."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43894394
http://time.com/5255265/north-korea-nuclear-test-site-collapse/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/25/north-koreas-mountain-mystery-is-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site-still-functional/?utm_term=.472f1472c222
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-site-collapse-may-be-out-of-action-china

[Botany]

3. Telling the other side what they have to do before you even sit down to negotiate.

Guaranteed failure .... end of story.

Damn, I miss when we had grown ups in government.

[Eyeball_Kid]

10. Here's what will likely happen:

Trumpy will demand the impossible: that NK give up the weapons currently in its arsenal. Kim won't surrender his weapons. That would be political suicide. When that reality hits Trumpy and Bolton, Trumpy will throw a tantrum and push for a military solution to NK's "intransigence". Bolton will be creaming in his pants.

The essential problem is that Trumpy is playing a zero-sum game that NK won't tolerate. Sophisticated negotiators would know better. Trumpy is not a sophisticated negotiator.

And you're right: setting up this kind of pretext for negotiations negates the purpose of meeting to negotiate. It's a high insult to the NK leadership that won't go unnoticed.

[Botany]

19. Or one other thing might happen is that Kin Jong Un will give in to Trump's demands ....

.... because he has been given the backing of Putin and Russia* in order to make
Trump look good.


* https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/world/asia/north-korea-missiles-ukraine-factory.html

North Korea's big jump in missile technology might because they have been getting help
from Putin/Ukraine.

[NickB79]

5. NK would only do this if the US withdrew all our troops

At a minimum.

It's a non-starter.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. American policies are the BIGGEST BULLY IN THE ROOM.

I get so sick of the "Do as I say, not as I do." And FUCK YOU TOO, warmonger.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Before starting WWIII they have to make it safe to fight

No profit in it if you destroy earth in the process

[paleotn]

11. NK will never give up their nukes...

and given the lunatic in the white house, who can blame them.

[Initech]

13. Does that include your boy Vladdy and his Satan 2 rocket, Bolton?

[BobTheSubgenius]

15. Thankfully, this lunatic has no say in governmental affairs.

OH, wait. REALLY????

[Wuddles440]

18. Dumpster, Bolton, & Co. are....

trying to prevent waging war on two fronts to concentrate on Iran. President Bone Spurs gets a "win" and probably a Nobel Peace Prize (just to fulfill his Obama obsession) for engaging Kim in negotiations and related "goodwill" gestures. He needs a war to distract from the multitude of scandals and consolidate his power - war with Iran presents this opportunity.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

20. If Trump starts a war with Iran, NK, or both, it's a double winner. His ratings go up, and

the calls for Mueller to totally end the investigation will go ballistic, since, "You are distracting the commander-in-chief during a time of national crisis." Never mind that it is Trump himself who has created the crisis. We must do whatever it takes to win the war, and if that means turning the rule of law on its head, so be it.

"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser," intoned General Patton (George C. Scott) in the movie "Patton."

The propaganda war against the FBI and DOJ is starting to work: the majority of Republicans think Trump is being framed.

Regarding North Korea, Donnie Two Scoops will claim a win for being the first president to get North Korea to the negotiating table, not understanding -- or caring -- that Kim has already won the grand prize. He has been given legitimacy on the world stage as a nuclear power. He will make some meaningless gesture to get Trump to lift U.S. sanctions and IQ45 will continue to claim that, "Everybody thinks I should get a Nobel Prize." Really, whose ego is that big? That's like Jorge Mario Bergoglio bragging, "Everybody thinks I should be Pope," in the days leading up to the Vatican election. (He went on to become Pope Francis.)

Trump is making the unacceptable the new normal.

[Timmygoat]

21. isn't it amazing

Bolton likes to talk tough, as he did during the Iraq war,but when it came his time to serve in VietNam he turned to jelly and was too scared to serve, just like Trump, Romney and several of the repugs who love to sens the sons of others to die in war but are too scared to go themselves.Did anyone ever discover the truth about McConnell's (very short) term in the military, it has always been a mystery, rumor is is was very fond of other young military men.

[Cold War Spook]

22. If we take out North Korea,

China has to take out South Korea.

[Nitram]

23. The Trump disease mis clearly highly contagious.

Confidently stating things that don't make sense on national TV. Denuclearization includes non-nuclear weapons? That's like saying "withdrawal includes mass suicide." Sounds like Bolton is trying to addd a poison pill to negotiations so he'll have an excuse to bomb North Korea. The man is a war-monger.

[meadowlander]

27. Sorry John, that's not how words work.

The clue is in the use of "nuclear" in "denuclearization". Non-nuclear weapons is "disarmament".

If you must drag us into another quagmire, you should at least have the decency to use the correct vocabulary to do it.