Eastern Asia

Separating the political and the trade and economic factors when analysing the relations between two states is artificial as such. It makes sense only in cases when this or that factor becomes predominant in the given time period.
Over the recent months, the relations between the two global leaders (the US and China) saw the predominance of the kind in the trade and economic sphere. By early May this year, the situation clearly reached the verge of a real trade war.

Does Donald Trump read New Eastern Outlook? You would not think so, but whatever we say about his relationship with North Korea seems to come true. Perhaps he finally understands what this journal is telling him, but it may be too late.

On June 1, 2018 the President of the USA Donald Trump had a meeting with Kim Yong-chol, the Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the head of the United Front Work Department. He was formerly the Director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau. During the meeting, which lasted 80 minutes, Kim Yong-chol handed Donald Trump a letter from Kim Jong-un. Before the meeting, Kim Yong-chol had a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Among the key participants in the new global “post-Cold War” game there are signs of turmoil, which became visible one and a half years ago with the emergence of Trump administration’s policy course under its overarching slogan “hit those robbing our nation with tariffs on imports”. And the label “thieves” does not only encompass the US main geopolitical rival, China, but also US allies.

In early February US Senate unanimously adopted the H.R.535-Taiwan Travel Act (TTA), without any omissions or reservations, which was approved a month earlier by the House of Representatives in a similar fashion. The unanimity shown by the Congress has predetermined the decision of Donald Trump to sign the act into a law, which occurred on March 16.

On March 5, 2018 a sensational headline appeared in several Western newspapers: North Korea has used chemical weapons against its own citizens! Having reached that conclusion, the USA imposed new sanctions on the DPRK in accordance with the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, passed in 1991. Sanctions prohibit the USA from exporting technology and materials connected with security, selling weapons, and providing financial or other aid to the DPRK.

Last week, North Korea was visited by a high-profile South Korean delegation headed by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong. During their two day stay in Pyongyang, members of the delegation had a number of talks with local political elites resulting in Chung Eui-yong making unexpected statements upon his arrival to Seoul, that proved to be sensational for the US media, when members of the delegation repeated them in Washington.

On January 6, 2018, The New York Times published an article citing the latest interviews of the current and former employees of the American intelligence service, which stated that the US intelligence services believed the rapid development of the nuclear and missile program of North Korea to be “one of the most significant failures”.

Many articles of the author concern the confrontation of the DPRK and the USA. However, we should not forget that there plenty supporters of a dialogue with the DPRK in USA, and, though stealthily, some measures have been taken in this respect.