s******r
发帖数: 5309 | 1 North Korea threatens to cancel summit with Trump over military drills
by Anna FifieldSEOUL —
North Korea is casting doubt on next month’s summit between leader Kim Jong
Un and President Trump over joint Air Force drills taking place in South
Korea, which it says are ruining the diplomatic mood.
North Korea always reacts angrily to the joint U.S.-South Korea military
exercises, considering them as a rehearsal for an invasion. But this year,
with the sudden burst of diplomacy, had appeared to be different.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries had scaled back and played down the
exercises, declining the news media the usual access to the drills. North
Korea barely said a word about the drills during the computer simulation
exercises that took place through April.
The two-week-long Max Thunder drills between the two countries’ Air Forces,
an annual event that began on Friday, have, however, clearly struck a nerve
in North Korea.
“This exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea,
is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional
military provocation running counter to the positive political development
on the Korean Peninsula,” the North's Korean Central News Agency said in a
report published early.
[Something’s going on at North Korea’s nuclear test site. Maybe it really
is closing. ]
The Max Thunder exercise involves about 100 warplanes, including eight F-22
radar-evading fighters and an unspecified number of B-52 bombers and F-15K
jets, according to the South’s main Yonhap News Agency. During last year's
Max Thunder exercises, U.S. and South Korean fighter jets flew an average 60
sorties a day to showcase their firepower.
By mentioning the Panmunjom Declaration, North Korea was referring to the
agreement signed last month by Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in
following their historic summit.
They agreed to work to turn the armistice agreement that ended the Korean
War in 1953 into a peace treaty that would officially bring the war to a
close, and also to pursue the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean
Peninsula.
North Korea suggested that the drills were putting the proposed summit
between Trump and Kim, scheduled for June 12, in jeopardy.
“The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about
the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit in light of this provocative
military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities,” KCNA
said.
Trump and Kim are due to meet in Singapore, which would be the first time a
North Korean leader had meet with a sitting U.S. president.
Trump and his top aides, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and
national security adviser John Bolton, both previously known for their hard
line views on North Korea, have express optimism that a denuclearization
agreement can be worked out.
In surprising detail, Pompeo — who says Kim watches foreign news reports —
has laid out the economic and development aid that would flow to the North
Korean regime if it permanently and verifiably gives up its nuclear weapons
program.
But North Korea, despite being run by one totalitarian family for the last
seven decades, is not entirely monolithic. It does have its hawks and its
doves, and analysts speculated that hard-liners in the military, concerned
about the sudden talk of denuclearization, might be trying to interfere with
the current diplomatic efforts.
[Pompeo says U.S. assuring Kim that it does not seek his overthrow ]
At the same time as threatening to scupper the summit with Trump, North
Korea did cancel talks with South Korean officials that had been scheduled
for Wednesday, less than 24 hours after agreeing to them.
North Korea had said it would send five senior officials to Panmunjom for
meetings with South Korean officials, the first such talks since the April
27 inter-Korean summit.
They were due to discuss some of the infrastructure aid that South Korea
would provide to North Korea as part of their broader detente.
The North was going to send Ri Son Kwon, who leads the North Korean agency
in charge of inter-Korean exchanges and was present at the summit, while the
South was going to send senior officials from the transport ministry and
forest service.
“Through the inter-Korean high-level talks, (we) will push to lay the
groundwork for sustainable development and lasting peace by having in-depth
discussions and faithfully implementing the Panmunjom Declaration,” the
South’s unification ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Max Thunder is a two-week operation that has been held annually in the
spring for about 10 years. It features the United States and South Korea
flying strike aircraft together from air bases in South Korea and Japan to
practice air-to-air combat. About 1,000 U.S. troops and 500 South Koreans
were involved last year, according to a U.S. military statement published at
the time.
Max Thunder is significantly smaller than Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, two
other military exercises that were held in April, and briefly paused to
reduce tensions as Kim and Moon could meet at the border at the
demilitarized zone between their nations to discuss potential peace plans.
The Pentagon said in March that Foal Eagle, which includes ground maneuvers,
would involve about 11,500 U.S. troops and 290,000 South Koreans this year,
while Key Resolve would focus more on computer simulation and involve about
12,200 U.S. troops and 10,000 South Koreans.
The threat by North Korea to cancel the summit now would seem to contradict
the message that South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong
brought to the White House in March, when Kim volunteered to meet with Trump
. At that time, Kim’s message was that North Korea would refrain from
additional nuclear or missile testing and understood “that the routine
joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States
must continue.”
Dan Lamothe contributed to this story.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-summit-with-trump-over-military-drills/2018/05/15/04a15a5e-5878-11e8-8b92-45fdd7aaef3c_story.html?utm_term=.253a9b0a9f06 | Y***i
发帖数: 1932 | | s*x
发帖数: 8041 | | l***o
发帖数: 7937 | 4 一些共和党议员已经提名大嘴竞逐诺贝尔了，大嘴也坦然受之，如果取消就尴尬了。 | s******r
发帖数: 5309 | 5 这次军演据说出动8架F-22，另外和日本还有协同作战演习， 针对目标是俄国。三胖显
然得到普京授意才这么干的。 | f******t
发帖数: 19544 | 6 毛子在远东有啥高价值目标，鬼才信是针对毛子。
【在 s******r 的大作中提到】
: 这次军演据说出动8架F-22，另外和日本还有协同作战演习， 针对目标是俄国。三胖显
: 然得到普京授意才这么干的。
| s******r
发帖数: 5309 | 7 美军在东地中海部署了一个大型航母编队，同时北约海军在黑海部署。 两头施压为了
让毛子顾此失彼，美军的目标依然是伊朗。
【在 f******t 的大作中提到】
: 毛子在远东有啥高价值目标，鬼才信是针对毛子。
| f******t
发帖数: 19544 | 8 毛子在地中海就几条小破船，美帝碰都不敢碰一下，各打各的。几架飞机能让毛子感受
啥压力。
【在 s******r 的大作中提到】
: 美军在东地中海部署了一个大型航母编队，同时北约海军在黑海部署。 两头施压为了
: 让毛子顾此失彼，美军的目标依然是伊朗。
|
|
