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Warmbier

‘The North Korean Regime is the Most Horrific on Earth’

April 25, 2019 by GregC

Listen to “‘The North Korean Regime is the Most Horrific on Earth'” on Spreaker.

North Korea demanded $2 million in exchange for the return of a comatose American prisoner, and even though the U.S. never actually paid for his release one of the leading experts on the North Korean threat says President Trump needs to get much tougher on the communist regime and the sooner the better.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that North Korea demanded $2 million for the return of Otto Warmbier, the American college student sentenced to hard labor for allegedly stealing a political poster.  Warmbier was flown back to the U.S. in 2017.  He was in a coma and died just hours later.

Multiple sources insist the U.S. never paid the ransom, but North Korea expert Gordon Chang says this story just confirms the barbaric nature of the Kim Jong-Un regime.

“I think the most important thing is that the North Korean regime is the most horrific on earth.  In this case, they brutalized Otto Warmbier and then have the audacity to bill us $2 million for this.  This money, of course, will never be paid,” said Chang, author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World.”

Chang says this latest revelation is further proof that dealing with Kim is fruitless.

“We will not have satisfactory relations with North Korea on anything – especially nuclear weapons – until there is a new government in North Korea which is democratic,” said Chang.

The news of the ransom demand for Warmbier comes the same week as Kim met face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.  Chang says Kim’s agenda is to coax Russia into into greater investment in North Korea and into backing sanctions relief.

Chang is also frustrated with President Trump for easing sanctions enforcement on North Korea around the time of the first summit in 2018.  He says Trump needs to clamp down harder on North Korea and needs to do it now.

“We’ve got to go back to really enforcing those sanctions to the point where North Korea doesn’t get any money.  Because if North Korea doesn’t get any money, it’ll realize it has to give up its nukes and missiles,” said Chang.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Chang explain how North Korea is pitting Russia and China against one another, how weak sanctions enforcement is a major threat to the people of South Korea, and what two things North Korea must do before the U.S. should even consider another summit.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Kim, Korea, news, Putin, sanctions, Trump, Warmbier

No Deal at Hanoi, Trump Weak on Warmbier, Beto’s Bid for 2020

February 28, 2019 by GregC

Listen to “No Deal at Hanoi, Trump Weak on Warmbier, Beto’s Bid for 2020” on Spreaker.

Daniel Foster of National Review Online and Greg Corombos of Radio America are pleased to see President Trump walk away with no deal with Kim Jong-Un rather than give in to Kim’s thoroughly unacceptable demands.  They also slam Trump for taking Kim “at his word” that he knew nothing about the horrific treatment of American Otto Warmbier in a North Korean prison and that Trump made some nuclear concessions even before beginning talks.  And they have fun with the news that media darling Beto O’Rourke is likely to run for president.

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Filed Under: News and Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: 2020, Beto O'Rourke, Kim, National Review, North Korea, Three Martini Lunch, Trump, Warmbier

‘This Has Become A Question of Us, Not Them’

June 23, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/6-23-chang-blog.mp3

North Korea murdered Otto Warmbier and a fierce response is needed, says a prominent expert on China and North Korea, but he warns the increasingly belligerent actions of the communist regime are a result of the U.S. failing to hold it accountable for more than two decades.

Earlier this month, North Korea released Warmbier after imprisoning him for 16 months.  He spent the vast majority of that time in a coma and died just days after returning to Ohio.  North Korea claimed Warmbier’s coma stemmed from a bout of botulism and that he was released on humanitarian grounds.  U.S. doctors found no evidence of botulism.

“At this point, we have to go with the overwhelming evidence and that is indeed an issue of murder,” said Gordon Chang, a leading scholar on China and North Korea and the author of “Nuclear Showdown:  North Korea Takes on the World.”

“There is just no other explanation for a healthy 22-year-old – then a 21-year-old – would end up in a permanent coma and then death.  We have to just follow the evidence and just realize that the North Korean explanation is not accurate,” said Chang.

“It may have been guards who got overzealous, but it probably was an order from the top of the regime to send a message to the United States,” said Chang.  “It was as horrific as we can think.  This is a good reminder when we start to talk about negotiating with the North Koreans of who we are actually dealing with.”

On Friday, the North Korean regime vigorously denied torturing Warmbier, insisting it provided him medical care and then released him on humanitarian grounds.

“Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis until his return to the U.S.,” the foreign ministry said, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The North Korean government also claimed it was the biggest victim in this story due to an alleged smear campaign by the U.S. and South Korea to accuse it of torture.

 

“It’s a typical North Korean response that it’s all the Americans’ response.  Any problem in the world can be traced to Washington.  This is just the way that they operate.  They’re certainly not going to accept any responsibility for the treatment of Otto Warmbier, although they had total custody of him since January 2, 2016,” said Chang.

While the actions of Kim Jong-Un’s regime infuriate the Trump administration, Chang says increased North Korean aggression is simply a result of the U.S. doing virtually nothing in response to provocations for decades.

“We have not imposed costs on North Korea for their brutalized treatment of Americans: the seizure of the (USS) Pueblo in 1968, the shoot down of the Air Force EC-121 with the loss of 31 lives.  Again, no penalty was imposed.  We never do so, so of course the North Koreans think they can kill us,” said Chang.

“Yes, the North Koreans are villains, but this has become an issue not of North Korea.  It’s become an issue of the American response to North Korea, he views of the American policy establishment, the views of American administrations – Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives,” said Chang.

“The north Koreans will continue to act in this way until the United States imposes some costs.  So this has become a question of us, not them,” he added.

And what is an effective response?

“Regardless of what they think about North Korea, the Trump administration needs to impose costs on Pyongyang.  We need to do that because we cannot allow anyone to kill anyone with impunity,” said Chang.

He believes going after North Korean money would send a crystal clear message.

“I think the most important thing would be to cut North Korea off from the global financial system by cutting North Korea off from Chinese banks, which are participating in illicit North Korean commerce and North Korean crimes,” said Chang.

In addition to providing an appropriate wake-up call to North Korea, Chang believes China would also receive the message loud and clear.

“If were to start to do that, I think that we would start to see a new Chinese attitude, much more positive and much more cooperative.  But until we are willing to take political risk and show political will, they’re going to continue with their support of North Korea.  They’ve weaponized North Korea against us.  We have not responded,” said Chang.

He says demonstrating diplomatic backbone is vital for U.S. national security.

“It’s becoming essential for the United States to show the rest of the world that, first of all, we’re going to enforce our own laws regardless of what we think about China or North Korea policy,” said Chang.

“Second, we need to send a message to the Chinese that for the first time since 1994 that we are serious about protecting the American homeland.  We haven’t done that, and because of that Beijing and Pyongyang haven’t taken us seriously,” he said.

President Trump has said the approach of previous administrations toward North Korea does not work, but he has yet to lay out a new policy.  In the meantime, Chang says we’re still getting pushed around.

“So far they’ve adopted the policy of their predecessors and they’re, again, getting no results from the Chinese.  I don’t know if the president has genuinely been taken in by Beijing or whether he’s just giving them enough rope and he’s decided he’s eventually going to do something on his own,” said Chang.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: China, news, North Korea, Trump, United Nations, Warmbier

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