Beware Trump aide and his hidden agenda on Korea
THINGS may not end well in the Korean peninsula, which could mean things may not end well for any of us.
Donald Trump is being played in nuclear poker, not just by the isolated communist leader Kim Jong-un but also by his own sinister new national security adviser, John Bolton.
Bolton has been out doing victory laps announcing the outcome of the historic peace summit, causing Pyongyang’s foreign ministry to accuse the White House of attempting to force “unilateral disarmament” on North Korea.
The communists have threatened to walk away from the talks after Bolton repeatedly talked up a “Libya-style” deal to completely eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
We remember how Colonel Gadaffi, having surrendered his nuclear programme, ended up dead in a culvert.
North Korea might have announced an end to nuclear explosive testing and the closure of a test site but Kim never made a concrete promise to abandon his nuclear weapons programme.
What Kim wants is recognition of North Korea as a nuclear power in exchange for ending certain missile tests and nuclear explosions and an agreement not to export nuclear technology to other states.
Bolton isn’t stupid, far from it. But by raising disarmament expectations, with the spectre of a dead dictator to boot, he is setting the talks up for failure.
If diplomacy fails, then Bolton’s favoured option of war wins and who knows how a humiliated Donald Trump would lash out? ● Bad news for Neil Findlay MSP who left his bag, containing laptop, parliamentary papers and a three-figure cash sum from book sales of his opus, Socialism and Hope, on a train the other night.
Good news, a ScotRail conductor rescued the bag after it had travelled unaccompanied all the way to Helensburgh and returned it safely, cash included.
More good news, proceeds from sales of Socialism and Hope go to charity.