Speaking to 65-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin about North Korea, 71-year-old President Donald Trump hoped Russia would apply more pressure on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Despite warnings of military action from the United States, Kim has showed no interest in bargaining for his nukes and ballistic missile program. Trump drew a red line with North Korea, insisting he would not allow Kim to develop a nuclear-packed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile [ICBM]. Putin put himself at odds with his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov who said Sept. 25 that the U.S. would not attack Pyongyang because it fears nuclear retaliation. Putin said yesterday that he does not accept North Korea as a nuclear state. White House press office said Trump “discussed working together to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea,” something urgently needed.
When U.N. Under-Secretry Secretary Gen. Jeffrey Feltman visited North Korea Dec. 10, it showed the urgency of avoiding war on the Korean Peninsula. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said yesterday that one more nuclear test would expand the chance of a U.S. military strike to 70%. No one expects any U.S. military action until after the Feb.9 – 25, 2018 Seoul Winter Olympics. Graham’s statements send a loud message to Pyongyang that the U.S. is serious about preventing it from getting an operational nuke-ready ICBM. With Congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigating alleged Trump-campaign ties to Russia, it makes U.S.-Russian relations difficult to improve. Putin praised Trump yesterday for improving the U.S. economy, something disputed by House and Senate Democrats.
Partisan members of Congress, like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), both co-chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, insist Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. Former FBI Director James Comey and Special Counsel Robert Mueller have found no evidence of alleged Trump collusion with Russia. Mueller indictments or guilty pleas to date have nothing to do with Trump collusion. With Russian skeptics in Congress, it makes Trump’s attempts to improve U.S.-Russian relations next to impossible. Every contact Trump makes with Putin— even on the urgent matter of North Korea—is viewed by Trump’s critics as collusion. If the U.S. doesn’t get the help it needs from China and Russia, Cruise missiles could hit Pyongyang sometime in March 2018. U.N.’s Feltman and Putin take Trump’s warnings seriously.
Speaking at his year-end Kremlin press conference, Putin said Russian collusion story was invented by Trump’s political opponents. When you consider the FBI used former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research to make its case against Trump’s Russian collusion, it’s hard to believe the investigation is still going. More evidence grows daily that the FBI paid opposition research firm Fusion-GPS contractor former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to build a case against Trump. Mueller knows that FBI agent Peter Strzok, who led the Hillary email investigation, issued emails denouncing candidate Trump, considering him a menace to the nation. If Comey and now Mueller knew that an FBI agent heading the Hillary investigation held such animus toward Trump, it compromised the investigation. Exonerating Hillary July 5, 2016 now looks fishy.
When you consider that Comey, former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice obtained warrants from FISA Court to wiretap Trump and associates from a phony anti-Trump dossier, it’s shocking abuse of the U.S. national security apparatus for political purposes. It’s reasonable to ask whether former President Barack Obama ordered Trump wiretapped to help, as Strzok did, to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign. With North Korea such a high priority, you’d think partisan members of Congress were ready to let go of their investigations. Yet Schiff insisted today that Republican membera of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees want to shut down Mueller’s investigation. Trump’s lawyers, led by Jay Sekolow and Ty Cobb, want Mueller’s investigation ended precisely because they’ve found no evidence of alleged Russian collusion.
Hearing positive signs from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about possible dialogue with North Korea, Putin sounded hopeful but knows that after the Seoul Winter Olympics Feb. 25, 2018 Trump could very well attack North Korea if it shows no willingness to disarm its nukes and ballistic missiles. Returning from North Korea Dec. 12, Feltman sees no evidence that North Korea’s willing to disarm its nukes and ballistic missiles. Unlike his predecessors, Trump doesn’t see much hope unless Kim has a change of heart. With all the nuclear threats against the U.S. from North Korea, Trump won’t settle for more diplomacy that doesn’t include complete disarmament. “I hope that he would gradually have opportunities to establish contacts with Russia,” Putin said, hoping to pull out all the stops to avoid war with North Korea. Putin wants Trump to avoid military conflict but knows it might happen.
