Sanger's ex cathedra judgment soon became a widely shared conclusion -- that Kim's concept of "denuclearization" could not possibly be acceptable to the United States. On April 9, The Washington Post published a story headlined "North Korea's definition of 'denuclearization' is very different from Washington's." But the story didn't cite a single North Korean statement for that claim. In fact, the only evidence it evinced for that claim was the assertion of MIT nuclear strategy expert Vipin Narang that Kim would "likely" insist on the United States taking down the "nuclear umbrella" over South Korea and Japan -- the threat to use nuclear weapons in case of nuclear attack by North Korea.
Narang's argument doesn't hold water: If North Korea were to give up its nuclear weapons, the United States would certainly have to end its nuclear threat against North Korea. In fact, the Clinton administration had already agreed to give up the targeting of North Korea with nuclear weapons as part of its "Agreed Framework" of 1994.
CNN picked up another variant of the same theme on April 20, claiming that North Korea was not actually talking about "complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of the North Korean program" as demanded by the United States. The article suggested that Kim's reference in China to "denuclearization on the peninsula" was evidence of a different concept, citing the argument by US government consultant Joshua Pollack that North Korea "considered the US's mere presence on the peninsula a nuclear threat" and would likely demand US withdrawal from South Korea.
But unfortunately for Pollack and CNN, South Korean President Moon had just reported that same day that Kim Jong Un dropped the demand that the United States withdraw its forces from South Korea in exchange for denuclearization. Opponents of the summit like Pollack and CNN were arguing, in effect, that they knew better than either Moon or Kim Jong Un himself what Kim's position on the issue of US troop withdrawal really was.
These examples of flagrant misrepresentation of facts and irrelevant and nonsensical arguments reflect a fundamental problem with the corporate media as well as the political elites of the United States: They are so wedded to the interests of the national security state and to the mythology of US hegemonic power that they refuse to support any diplomatic move that could result in a change in the military status quo in Northeast Asia.
The power of the media to create a climate of hostility toward diplomacy enabled Dick Cheney to destroy two previous US deals with North Korea before they could reach their crucial implementation phases. A central question in the coming weeks will be whether the corporate media will succeed once again in creating a political climate that forces the Trump administration to abandon the only kind of deal that can create an off-ramp from nuclear confrontation.
From Truthout
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
