DragonI

Pompeo announces suspension of nuclear arms treaty with Russia

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that the US is suspending the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a key pact with Russia that has been a centerpiece of European security since the Cold War.

www.cnn.com|Nicole Gaouette and Jennifer Hansler, CNN

"For years, Russia has violated the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty without remorse," Pompeo said, speaking from the State Department. "Russia's violations put millions of Europeans and Americans at greater risk."

"It is our duty to respond appropriately," Pompeo said, adding that the US had provided "ample time" for Russia to return to compliance.

The long-expected suspension, which has raised concerns about a renewed arms race with Moscow and put European allies on edge, goes into effect on Saturday. 

"The United States has fully adhered to the INF Treaty for more than 30 years, but we will not remain constrained by its terms while Russia misrepresents its actions," Trump said in a statement Friday. "We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other."

In a statement, NATO said America's allies "fully support" the US decision because of Russia's threat to Euro-Atlantic security and its refusal to provide any credible response or take any steps towards full and verifiable compliance.

NATO urged Russia to use the next six months to "return to full and verifiable compliance to preserve the INF Treaty."

A North Korean official had referred to Mr. Pence as a “political dummy” after the vice president  said Mr. Kim could meet the same fate as Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, if he did not make a deal with the United States. 

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties.

...

Donald J. Trump President of the United States of America

Trump Accepts Kim Jong-un’s Invitation to Meet

No sitting American president has ever met a North Korean leader, and the meeting with Mr. Kim would be a breathtaking gamble.

www.nytimes.com|Mark Landler

1. Who’s going to tell Trump there are NO white people in North Korea?
2. Kim Jong-un, #LockHimUp #Dotard

For Mr. Trump, a meeting with Mr. Kim, a leader he has threatened with “fire and fury” and derided as “Little Rocket Man,” is a breathtaking gamble. No sitting American president has ever met a North Korean leader, and Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly vowed that he would not commit the error of his predecessors by being drawn into a protracted negotiation with the North, in which the United States makes concessions but allows North Korea to keep elements of its nuclear program.

“There is no indication that North Korea is prepared to give up nuclear weapons and there are multiple risks for the president ranging from the alarm this will cause in Japan, where they are very worried, to the danger that the meeting ends up with a reduction of sanctions and a reduction of military exercises in exchange for an illusory pledge that North Korea will violate just as they’ve violated every agreement for 25 years.”,  Michael J. Green, a former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush  

Three B-2 Stealth Bombers Have Deployed To Guam In Support of U.S. Pacific Command’s Bomber Assurance and Deterrence Mission

The U.S. Air Force has just deployed three B-2 Spirits stealth bombers to Guam. Three B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bombers along with approximately 200 Airmen belonging to the 509th Bomb Wing, Whit…

theaviationist.com

Interestingly, the B-2s have joined the “several” B-1B Lancers deployed to Guam to support the U.S. Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Continuous Bomber Presence mission. The Bones (using the nickname popular among their aircrews) have been involved in several shows of force around the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, but they can’t carry any kind of nuclear weapon. So, the B-2 deployment in the region brings a nuclear bomber capability closer to North Korea.

What The Hawaii Ballistic Missile Alert Warns About Trump Relations With North Korea

An alert by the U.S. Pacific Command warned Hawaiians that a North Korean ballistic missile was headed their way. Although rescinded, the sending of this alert shows the perils of our bellicose relations with North Korea.

www.forbes.com|Charles Tiefer

What does this tell us of the current state of President Trump’s aggressive and provocative war of words with Kim Jung Un?  In a word, it is alarming, potentially wreaking havoc.  We are creating a situation where an American miscalculation is both possible and disastrous.  And, we are creating a situation where a North Korean reaction to an American miscalculation is also both possible and even more ruinous.  There needs to be some channel of communications between the American and North Korean military to avert, not something as pedestrian as the usual antagonism and militarism – but catastrophe.

One widely distributed poster showed the U.S. president in a Nazi uniform and suggested he was preparing for an invasion of North Korea.

“We hate Trump,” went one song sang by the protesters. “We love peace. We love equality.”

“I want President Trump to know we do not want a war,” said Yoo Seung-hyun

“I hope that Americans citizens pay attention to what's happening here. War brings tragedy.”,  Kim Hyun-a, 49, a teacher who was attending the protest with her students. “