If you read any news this morning, you probably saw that Pyongyang had – allegedly – blown up the tunnels that that made up the bulk of its nuclear testing facility at Punggye-ri. As the BBC reports, the site was destroyed. However, it’s entirely possible that the damage is reversible and may have been caused by a previous collapse. Remember, this is North Korea we’re dealing with. You can’t trust anything that comes from the pudgy mouth of glorious leader.Foreign reporters at the Punggye-ri site in the north-east said they had witnessed a huge blast. Pyongyang later said the site had been dismantled. The move by the North was seen as part of a diplomatic rapprochement with South Korea and the US. But scientists believe it partially collapsed after the last test in September 2017, rendering it unusable. It came ahead of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June, which has now been cancelled by Mr Trump. Independent inspectors were not allowed to witness the process of the dismantling of the Punggye-ri site in the mountainous region of the country, and some worry it could be easily reversible, the BBC’s Laura Bicker reports.So, that was the story for about 10 minutes. Then we learned of the following letter, in which President Trump pulled the plug on the supposedly still-scheduled Summit…
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, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. l was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used. I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated. If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history. Sincerely yours, Donald J. Trump President of the United States of America
Kim Jun Un, in the words of a wise man “Congratulations, you just played yourself”. Withdrawing from talks with #NKorea is 100% the right decision. #KJU doesn’t want a deal. He has deliberately sabotaged the talks over the last two weeks & was setting us up to take the blame.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 24, 2018
The bottom line here is that Kim Jong Un is an unstable little lunatic. It was unlikely that the summit, even if it had somehow taken place, would have produced anything you could trust or verify. So, for now, we tried. The NK regime may or may not have destroyed it’s testing facility, but no meeting will take place. It’s unfortunate, but hey. At least we didn’t prop up the terrorist and nuclear plots by shipping them a pallet of cash in the dead of night. The big winner here is probably the Nobel committee, who will get a (temporary?) reprieve from the horror associated with giving their ridiculous peace prize to Donald J Trump.Amazing how the media narrative is already that the summit fell apart because of Trump, even though North Korea threatened us, again, with nuclear war.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 24, 2018
Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com
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