The threat of hostilities with North Korea isn't really over, as all the country's capabilities remain in place and intentions can "change overnight," retired Gen. Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, said Friday.
"We don't think it is really over," Clark told CNN's "New Day." "What we have here is some publicity. It's nice not to have the terrible threats going back and forth, but the capabilities are still in place and the intentions can change overnight. As President [Donald] Trump said, it's not only the nuclear means but the non-nuclear means. The cannons, the weapons that could all be launched on Seoul."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in North Korea, where is he is working to fill in the details on the country's plans to denuclearize, and also secure remains of U.S. soldiers who remain missing from the Korean War.
Clark said there are ways Pompeo can convince skeptics North Korean leader Kim Jong un is serious about denuclearizing, but he is not sure Kim will release the information proving his intentions.
"It would be nice to have a complete list of all of their nuclear facilities and nuclear means," said Clark. "I don't think we're going to get that."
A timeline outlining meetings in which such facts could be declared, or a step-by step process in which North Korea could say it would open its storage facilities and training schools to show the background of the country's program would also be useful, said Clark, but getting itt "would be a total surprise."
"It is a closed society," he said. "It seems unlikely that it is going to unwind easily. What many of us are concerned about is the pledge to denuclearize the peninsula will be a tit-for-tat that the united States is using to make concessions to the North, and this is totally contrary to the expectations that the president built and have sustained that this would be a denuclearization."
It's also good North Korea has halted its testing program, said Clark, but at the same time, "the United States has not tested nuclear weapons for decades, but we still have weapons," said Clark.
The former NATO commander also discussed the president's upcoming meetings with NATO and with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it's "really upsetting" to U.S. allies that Trump seems to prefer meetings with Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping than he does with the leaders of the United States' long-time allies.
"Naturally, allies are suspicious," said Clark. "What you have here is a policy and a practice by the president that really doesn't make sense. If you worry about trade disputes with China, then you want your European allies on your side to add to the concerns of China. Instead you're picking a fight on trade and President Trump has opened the door for China to cut separate deals with Europe leaving the United States out."
Such a policy, he added, is not only upsetting in terms of traditional U.S. support, but "also doesn't make sense in terms of good bargaining."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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