The geopolitical activity today reflects further evidence of China’s hand controlling Kim Jong-un as Beijing protests against President Trump calling them to task for their duplicity.   Methinks Beijing doth protest too much.
First, at an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council in New York, US ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “begging for war.”


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Secondly, President Trump took flak from the U.S. geopolitical peanut gallery for pointedly calling out South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and his espoused inane and weak position(s) which do not align with creating their own stability – against the duplicitous China and the proxy Chinese province of the DPRK.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/904309527381716992
However, President Trump’s tough love approach is working swimmingly.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has been condemned internationally for conducting its most powerful nuclear test yet, but, across the border, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is also attracting flak for his policy of pursuing engagement with Pyongyang.
Rebuked by U.S. President Donald Trump, Moon is facing growing calls at home to change course and take a tougher line against North Korea, even from his core support base of young liberals, according to hundreds of comments posted online.
[…] Within South Korea, doubts about the “Moonshine” policy of engaging the North have been growing in recent weeks because there has been no change in the pace of the North’s ballistic missile testing since Moon took office.
The North twice test-fired intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. Now, despite international warnings, it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday.
“You said you will not have dialogue with the North if the North conducts a nuclear test. Keep your word,” said a post on the Facebook page of the presidential Blue House from a user named Kim Bojoong.
Moon and Trump spoke by phone later on Monday, and the Blue House said the two agreed it was time to apply the strongest sanctions and pressure on North Korea and that stronger sanctions would be pursued at the United Nations. (read more)


Given the nature of the less than appreciative prior position by Moon Jae-in on THAAD missile defenses, what better time is there to renegotiate a trade deal and a national security alliance than the exact moment when South Korea is in a heightened state of vulnerability?
Do you really think President Trump is going to give up moments when U.S. transactional leverage is the highest?
…Just to keep polite diplomatic appearances?
Where was the national security foresight of  Moon Jae-in when he was snarkily dismissing the security offered by the Trump administration?
This fundamental disconnect on when leverage is greatest, and when to use it, is why people continually miss President Trump’s instinctual capability as an apex predator.  This fundamental truism also highlights the ridiculous nature of those who use historic prisms to view a modern president who is staunchly ‘Ameria-First’.
If you want us on your team, we don’t arrive without terms for our participation.  Period.

  • Is it nice to leverage South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in when he’s at his most vulnerable? Probably not.
  • Are we concerned about ‘nice’ given the nature of the recent lack of appreciation?  Not-so-much.
  • Is it brutal to leverage a better U.S. trade outcome against the backdrop of the current national security situation in Southeast Asia?  Possibly.  So what?

Additionally, when the defender of liberty shows his Apex Predator tendencies, there’s another benefit….
….Do you think NATO and European Allies are not paying attention to what happens when Moon Jae-in takes President Trump’s U.S. defense, protection and financial interests for granted, meanwhile there’s a carnivorous ‘bear’ on their own doorstep?
Think about it as more trade deals are later negotiated.

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