President Trump yesterday urged North Korea to return to the bargaining table to resolve the two countries’ differences. Trump made the request as part of a tweet defending Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, who Trump has called Sleepy Joe Biden, and who North Korea labeled last week a “rabid dog,” who must be “beaten to death with a stick.”
“Mr. Chairman, Joe Biden may be Sleepy and Very Slow, but he is not a ‘rabid dog.’ He is actually somewhat better than that, but I am the only one who can get you where you have to be,” Trump tweeted yesterday. “You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon!”
Trump’s tweet followed a gesture of “goodwill” in the form of canceling a joint military exercise with South Korea.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced Sunday that the United States and South Korea have agreed to postpone a planned upcoming joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea. Esper made the announcement after he left Seoul and arrived in Bangkok for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
[Related: ‘A badge of honor’: Biden welcomes North Korea calling him a ‘rabid dog’]
The “combined flying training exercise” was described as “a wing-sized event with aircrews from the U.S. and South Korea.” Trump canceled the predecessor event, Exercise Vigilant Eagle, last year.
The exercise was postponed this year in order to “keep the door open” to diplomacy to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons, officials told reporters.
“The reason we’re doing that is to give the North Koreans an opportunity to reconsider some of their recent provocations and come back to the negotiating table,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told reporters traveling with him back to the U.S.
The U.S. olive branch quickly was spurned by North Korea, whose response was to conduct a flying exercise of its own, wherein North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised a parachuting drill of military sharpshooters.
In a statement attributed to a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry, North Korea claims that U.S. support for a “human rights resolution” at the United Nations last week had undercut the gesture of postponed war games.
“We, for our part, tried hard to appreciate it as part of positive attempts to ease tensions and make the most of chance for dialogue,” read the statement from the unnamed spokesman, who said the resolution proves the U.S. is “still wedded to the hostile policy geared to isolate and stifle” North Korea.
“In particular, the U.S. dreams of bringing down our system … which shows that it has no intention to sincerely work with us towards the settlement of issues,” the spokesman said. “Therefore, we have no willingness to meet such dialogue partner.”
