The U.S.A. and South Korea had started a series of drills in the Korean Peninsula. The exercise was part of an annual activity between the two Nations.
The activity prompted North Korea to threaten a pullout from talks in Singapore. These talks were the most anticipated of the century between America and North Korea.
Kim Jong-un was considered a leader not to be trifled with but somehow that didn’t mean anything to Trump and Moon Jae-in.
The men remained steadfast in their plans to continue all exercises for the next two weeks.
North Korea said they would be closely monitoring all activity and felt the allies could be planning an attack on his Country.
Reasons For Drill
The two men said there was a need for the military practice. It was also said that North Korea were known for pulling out of deals at the last minute or provoking situations.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert cited that the U.S. believed that North Korea understood that Washington needed to continue its annual drills. She said that they heard nothing to the contrary from Pyongyang.
“We will continue to go ahead and plan the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un,” Nauert said.
“The defensive nature of these combined exercises has been clear for many decades and has not changed,” said Army Col. Rob Manning.
The U.S. made it clear that this was a norm and was in no way a threat to the upcoming summit. For them it was about being in a state of readiness.
This certainly meant that Trump wasn’t comfortable and felt that Kim couldn’t be trusted.
North Korea Tense
Kim wasn’t pleased to say the least according to reports. It was somewhat surprising since Nauert said they received nothing from Pyongyang regarding stopping its military exercises.
“We will appropriately respond to the Trump administration if it approaches the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting with a truthful intent to improve relations,” Kim said.
“But we are no longer interested in a negotiation that will be all about driving us into a corner and making a one-sided demand for us to give up our nukes.”
He added, “and this would force us to reconsider whether we would accept the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting.”
It was clear such a statement shouldn’t be taken lightly and Kim could possibly withdraw from the summit.
If he did it would be Trump and Moon’s fault. Since a hold off from doing such drills would benefit their agenda.
Such an effort towards the North Koreans should be well thought out and planned. It was clear that this one wasn’t well thought out as it could cause Kim to change his mind.
“The United States must carefully contemplate the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit amid the provocative military ruckus that it’s causing with South Korean authorities,” the North said. “We’ll keenly monitor how the United States and South Korean authorities will react.”