Posted on Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 06:33 pm:

---

quote:

...I think, probably, Iran made a mistake. I would imagine it was a general or somebody that made a mistake in shooting that drone down.

And, fortunately, that drone was unarmed. It was not — there was no man in it, and there was no — it was just — it was over international waters; clearly over international waters. But we didn’t have a man or woman in the drone. We had nobody in the drone. It would have made a big difference, let me tell you. It would have made a big, big difference.

But I have a feeling — I may be wrong and I may right, but I’m right a lot. I have a feeling that it was a mistake made by somebody that shouldn’t have been doing what they did. I think they made a mistake. And I’m not just talking the country made a mistake. I think that somebody under the command of that country made a big mistake.

...I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth. I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it. But we’ll be able to report back, and you’ll understand exactly what happened. But it was a very foolish move, that I can tell you.

---

Posted on Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 06:44 pm:

---

quote:

The world hopes North Korea and the United States can talk to each other and for those talks to be successful, Chinese President Xi Jinping told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday, praising Pyongyang’s efforts toward denuclearization.

...Xi told Kim he had come to consolidate a traditional friendship and to promote the political process for a resolution of the Korean peninsula issue, it added.

Xi “positively appraised” North Korea’s efforts to safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula and promote denuclearization, state television said.

“The situation on the Korean peninsula concerns regional peace and stability,” the report paraphrased Xi as telling Kim at their formal meeting.

“The international community hopes that North Korea and the United States can talk and for the talks to get results.”

---

Posted on Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 07:04 pm:

---

quote:

Chairman Xi Jinping arrives in North Korea to support the “correct thinking” within his proxy province and hostage Kim Jong-Un. Magnanimous Panda, and defender of all enlightened Asian progress, exhibited great smiles as nervous Kim worries over the dust on the military shoestrings.

Magnanimous Panda Chairman Xi appreciates the welcome, and will now show the world the brilliant and purposeful peace that can only be achieved by following the Chinese model of great guidance and enlightenment.

Thank you Magnanimous Panda. The world can never be worthy of your consideration, guidance and great leadership. Peace for the Korean people will be achieved because Magnanimous Panda raises the collective responsibility of all human consciousness.

Thus, we enter a phase of great nuance and subtle signaling where we will need to carefully evaluate the scale of hostage release. Obviously western media -writ large- are oblivious to the multidimensional hostage dynamic; heck, most major western media don’t even acknowledge that China controls North Korea… So we have a front row seat to review the generally coded signals.

In the dynamic of the denuclearization of North Korea, the most likely scenario is Chairman Xi playing the role of magnanimous panda and *guiding* Chairman Kim Jong Un into the world of nations. Hence the op-ed outlined yesterday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be positioned as the hero so that Xi doesn’t look like he lost Kim to Trump. However, what we don’t know is how much autonomy Chairman Xi will allow Chairman Kim. It’s the “guiding” part we need to watch closely.

Beijing isn’t going to let Kim go fully autonomous and independent; not when they share a border; and certainly not after generations of strategic influence and control over the DPRK as a proxy province and hedge against the West.

Unfortunately, South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be useless as a counter wedge against the cunning of Xi Jinping in this very important aspect. Moon is essentially the Asian 0bama, and has about as much strategic intelligence, foresight and usefulness as a bag-of-rocks being used as a weather vane.

Chairman Xi now owns any actions taken by North Korea. Whether Xi releases his hostage, or the more likely scenario, he retains control but the nuclear threat is removed, matters not.

The open engagement by Xi now transfers all DPRK behavior openly to Beijing. North Korea is no more a nuclear threat than China. Technically, this has always been the reality; however, now things are public. China cannot hide or deny their involvement.

Chairman Kim may never be freed, but for U.S. interests the nuclear threat is gone.

Remember, generally speaking President trump held two connected objectives: (1) removing the threat posed by North Korea by severing the ability of Beijing to use the proxy province as a weapon; and (2) deconstructing the growing economic influence of China.

The first objective has been achieved. President Trump can now go into full economic war against China without the worry of Beijing using Pyongyang to launch rockets.

The G20 in Osaka should be lots of fun.

---