Ivanka Trump-Kushner: Quasi-Diplomat Without Skills or Clearance Confab NK Nukes

.

Newest Diplomatic Team vis-à-vis North Korea

(Wow times 3)

SEOUL / WASHINGTON (ABC News), February 23 – President Donald Trump said he will impose the “largest-ever” package of sanctions on North Korea, intensifying pressure on the reclusive country to give up its nuclear and missile programs in remarks given at the CPAC gathering. That here from NBC News.

NOTE: The North has not tested any missiles in two months.

In addressing the Trump administration's biggest national security challenge, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned (1) one person, (2) 27 companies, and (3) 28 ships, according to Treasury statement posted re: these new sanctions.

These new sanctions are designed to disrupt North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels and to further isolate Pyongyang. The ships are located, registered or flagged in: North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama, and Comoros.

Treasury “also issued an advisory alerting the public to the significant sanctions risks to those continuing to enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea.”

The background: North Korea's missile and nuclear program is seeking to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have taunted each other through the media and back in August Trump threatened to go beyond sanctions “by bringing fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea.

Related story: Trump’s new package of sanctions were to be announced (at CPAC) at the same time his daughter, Ivanka Trump-Kushner, is visiting South Korea to put more pressure on North Korea from Seoul. She told South Korea's president, Moon- Jae-in that she will use her visit to the Winter Olympics closing ceremony to advocate maximum pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

She then had dinner with President Moon who told her that South Korea cannot acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state and talks with the North on denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations must go hand in hand, Moon said, cited by his spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, at a news conference.

Moon also said close cooperation between the United States and South Korea is important for the talks, and he told Trump-Kushner out of all countries, South Korea has the strongest will to say it cannot acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state.

In Seoul, President Moon Jae-in, however, highlighted how the Olympics have served as a vehicle for dialogue between the two Koreas, and said the U.S. and South Korea should make use of the current mood of rapprochement between the Koreas in seeking denuclearization. 

The differences in how the U.S. and South Korea hope to achieve denuclearization were also apparent during the banquet.

My 2 cents: I suspect but don't know for sure that the Seoul/Washington differences are probably that Mr. Trump didn't know what the word “rapprochement” meant.

Also, I am still wrapping my head about this latest Trump Empire, Inc. ploy about Ivanka Trump-Kushner getting this involved.

That news is a bit too much: Ivanka Trump-Kushner now a diplomat between US/ROK and North Korea nuclear issues. Well, to keep it simple in a word: Give me a break.

In her remarks, Ms. Trump said she was in South Korea to celebrate the Olympics and to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to a “maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized.” 

Now her visit comes on top the new sanctions announced by Mr. Trump, and all that, I believe, puts us on a more dangerous path.

Ms. Trump-Kushner is the least qualified or able to fulfill any role in foreign policy discussions and especially vis-à-vis North Korea’ nuclear weapons program.

If anything as far as I can see is that she has zero knowledge about Asian thinking or any knowledge about North Korean thinking and mindset. She has zero skills in diplomacy and especially regarding Asia. FYI: Our country and foreign affairs are not a new arm of the Trump family business affiliation or a financial endeavor.

We are on very thin ice… I believe that since North Korea has not tested a missile in two months, that Kim, Jung-un sent his sister to the Winter Olympics, and she met with President Moon, Jae-in that all that couple together is Kim’s way of reaching out to say “let’s talk.” Moon agrees but apparently Donald J. Trump and his offspring, Ivanka, either do not know or can’t think or comprehend what those North Korean gestures mean since they obviously do not know the Asian mind and especially North Korean skills in diplomacy.

Stay tuned – the ugliness is about to ramp up again.

Thanks from coming by.