Top North Korean official last night arrived in the US for talks with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Former military intelligence chief and one of Kim Jong-un’s trusted aides, Kim Yong Chol arrived in the US to speak with Mike Pompeo ahead of the ‘expected’ summit due to take place on 12th June in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He is the highest-level representative to set foot in the United States since 2000.

The summit which Donald Trump had cancelled is now expected to take place, although either side haven’t been conclusive since the letter sent by Trump.

It was reported in South Korea that Kim Jong-un touched down at JFK International Airport at 2pm Eastern Time.

Two days of vital meetings

The meeting between Kim Young Chol and Mike Pompeo was expected to be an attempt to get the summit back on track but in a Tweet on Tuesday, Trump said that he had a “great team” working on the summit, which implies that it was never Trump’s intention of cancelling the talks. With both sides proceeding with preparations as if the talks were going ahead, it shows that the letter cancelling and the media blackout from North Korea were either hardened negotiation tactics or bluster to maintain the ‘hard-nosed negotiator’ images of both leaderships.

Previously Donald Trump had sent a letter to the North Korean leadership stating that the summit is cancelled due to “tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement”, he goes onto further say that “You talk about nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.” The letter itself was a response to a statement by the North Korean authorities after the US vice-president Mike Pence made same remarks about them ending up like Libya.

The statement from the North Koreans went on to call the remarks that North Korea could become like Libya and that a military option for them never came off the table. The talks between the two nations hit an impasse when the secret state couldn’t commit to complete denuclearisation. What is remarkable about Trump’s response, is that North Korea were deeply unhappy at being threatened, so, naturally the US president went onto threaten North Korea.

The meeting will continue today after the first day concluded yesterday.

Continued US foreign policy overstretching

Donald Trump’s approach towards North Korea and the peace talks is the dangerous aspect despite the spin by the White House and media outlets. Whilst Kim Jong-un did commit to denuclearisation with South Korea, it was done on the condition that the country would be safe because US foreign policy, in particular since George W.

Bush, has been interventionalist and have reassured commitment to Article 5 to the NATO treaty to multiple nations that in reality offer no geopolitical advantage and would be difficult to almost impossible to defend.

These include: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who have all be reassured in the past over the threat of Russia, with calls for NATO expansion to cover Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova along with troops and warplanes to be moved into Poland. Furthermore, the US is committed to defending Japan from China and South Korea from North Korea.

The Anglo-American Empire which was established after WWII, has been carefully maintained by picking and choosing their foreign interventions and through possible overextension risks speeding up its collapse.

The current shift in global powers is significant and the US is pushing to maintain it position as the global power but with emerging markets like China and the military power of Russia, those two form a formidable partnership that threaten global order.
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