Even peace is a bad thing…if President Trump has anything to do with it. From Adam Johnson at theantimedia.org:
According to a recent poll, 88 percent of the South Korean public viewed the recent peace summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in as a success. In addition, 65 percent of South Koreans trust Kim Jong-un on his pledge to denuclearize, and Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have shot up to 86 percent. Broadly speaking, recent developments between North and South Korea have been met with widespread optimism and praise from the South Korean public.
Reading US media, one would hardly know any of this. As journalist Tim Shorrock noted last week in The Nation (5/2/18), the response in US media was the polar opposite to how these peace efforts are being received in South Korea. US pundits met the summit with faux-savvy skepticism, a combination of “nothing to see here” cynicism and suspicions that Trump was getting “played.” As Shorrock wrote:
“’Yada, yada, yada,’ the perennial hawk Max Boot wrote disparagingly in the Washington Post about the ‘Korea summit hype,’ adding that ‘there is very little of substance here.’ Similar hot takes were offered by Nicholas Kristof and Nicholas Eberstadt in the New York Times, Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post, Robin Wright in the New Yorker, and Michael O’Hanlon in The Hill. Their doubts were repeated and amplified as gospel by the usual critics on cable TV.
“The kicker came on Sunday, April 29, when the Times’ Mark Landler painted the Korean summit as an affront to US national-security interests. Citing every establishment pundit he could find, Landler argued that a resumption of diplomatic ties between the Koreas ‘will inevitably erode the crippling economic sanctions against the North,’ while making it hard for Trump ‘to threaten military action against a country that is extending an olive branch.’ It was depressing to see such overt cheerleading for US imperial control over Korea in the media.”
To continue reading: Media Pundits Horrified by Prospect of Peace Between North and South Korea
CANBERRA – Last year, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump were hurling kindergarten insults at each other – “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission,” said Trump of Kim; “mentally deranged US dotard,” Kim retorted – while threatening to reduce East Asia to a post-atomic wasteland. Now, in a stunning and dramatic development, the two are to meet by May. Kim reportedly is willing to denuclearize and eager to talk directly to Trump, who has agreed.
But optimism about this turn of events must be tempered with cautious realism. North Korea is the nuclear problem from hell. Neither South Korea nor the United States can control the narrative; definitions of success or failure are highly relative; and Trump must enter the talks with no exit strategy. The six decades since the Korean War ended in 1953 – with a ceasefire but no peace agreement – have hardened an increasingly dangerous stalemate. Although neither side is likely to launch a premeditated nuclear attack, the risk of warfrom miscommunication, misperception, or miscalculation is real.
All key announcements so far have come from Seoul, not Pyongyang or Washington. President Moon Jae-in, a son of refugees from North Korea, was elected on the promise of a two-track approach to the North: sanctions and diplomacy. This led to the Olympic initiative whereby Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, attended the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, and the two countries competed as one team. Afterwards, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and intelligence chief Suh Hoon traveled to Pyongyang and Washington, where, standing on the White House lawn with Cho Yoon-je, South Korea’s ambassador to the US – but with no US officials present – they announced the summit.