kim jung-un, the deranged lunatic running a prison camp known as North Korea, has suddenly told the world that he has decided against firing missiles toward the US territory of Guam. His accompanying threat that “If the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions” he will change his mind again – is a pathetically weak attempt at face-saving.
And, as an extra-added attraction, he has not been seen in public for over a week (????)
Why did kim back down?
We, of course, don’t know for sure. But, far and away, the most likely reason is that Xi Ping, who runs China, and therefore is in charge of whether North Korea even exists (90% of North Korea’s trade is with China) read kim the riot act.
Is this a surprise? Maybe to some. But it shouldn’t be. This die was cast the minute Xi Ping warned the United States not to attack North Korea….but also said that if North Korea acted first, China would not get involved.
That’s great politics. Xi Ping comes across as a strong leader laying down the law…when, in reality, President Trump had already made clear that our military would not strike first, it would only do so in retaliation for what North Korea did.
The result?
-Donald Trump looks good for putting Xi Ping in the position where he had to say what he did, or risk allowing a war on his border. If media were capable of giving Trump the time of day they would be congratulating him for this;
-Xi Ping looks good because, regardless of the fact that President Trump snookered him into doing so, he said what he did. Xi looks strong, decisive, and as though he was laying down the law to the USA, when all he actually did was tell us to do what we said we’d do anyway;
-And kim jung-un looks like the deranged lunatic he looked like in the first place.
Will this hold? Maybe.
Is there any guarantee that kim will not re-reverse field and shoot those missiles? No.
But, at least for the moment, things are back to a managable level.
Good job!
