Trump's refusal to condemn North Korea's missile tests is an open invitation for Kim Jong Un to push additional provocations, experts warn.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his national security advisers have repeatedly declined to criticize North Korea’s latest weapons tests, shrugging them off as small-scale and reiterating their desire to restart negotiations with Kim Jong Un.
That kind of response, some experts warn, is an open invitation for Kim to push the envelope when it comes to additional provocations. “It’s very much under control," Trump told reporters Thursday. “Short-range missiles, we never made an agreement on that.” Story continuesRussia sanctions: Donald Trump sanctions Russia over nerve agent attack on former spy in Britain
Trump hailed the DMZ meeting in June as historic and"legendary." But that event, while dramatic, did not produce any breakthroughs. Instead, Trump and Kim agreed only to set up negotiating teams aimed at restarting talks to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hoped North Korea would send its foreign minister to Bangkok this week, where the American diplomat was participating in a meeting of Southeast Asian nations.
They offer Kim a “pretext” to test weapons, which is actually driven by technical needs in North Korea’s development process and a desire to gain leverage if and when the talks do restart, said Scott Snyder, director of U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think tank.“It’s pretty clear they’re trying to shape the environment for those talks,” he said.
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