Transcript of the interview with Press TV
Background
US President Donald Trump has blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for a change in North Korea’s tone following Washington’s landmark overtures with Pyongyang.
He was referring to a meeting between President Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in early May. Trump made the remarks during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the White House.
He also raised doubts about his Singapore summit with Kim, saying there was a substantial chance the meeting would not happen as planned in mid-June.
Concerns are growing over an abrupt change in tone both from North Korea and the United States. Last week, Pyongyang warned that the Kim-Trump summit could be canceled if the United States continued to push for a one-sided denuclearization deal.
Pyongyang has been further infuriated Washington’s comparing North Korea’s fate with that of Gaddafi-era Libya and continued joint military drills with South Korea.
It sounds like Washington is trying to play double on N Korea, and China, after the trade war was seemingly settled.
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PressTV: What are your views?
Peter Koenig: To begin with, nothing is ever settled with the US. They do whatever suits them best and renege on any agreement if they feel it’s to their advantage.
Ethics and international law have no place in US politics.
As to Kim Jong-Un and North Korea – let’s face it, Kim Jong-un at the beginning gave away everything without getting anything back. He was ready to disarm completely, he even allowed the annual Sout-Korea / US military maneuvers to continue – which surprised me a lot.
Then President Xi probably called Kim – I don’t know whose initiative it was to meet twice within ten days or so – but probably President Xi’s – to tell Kim to wake up.
And now Kim did wake up; and, of course, Washington, especially with John Bolton in the room, he doesn’t like that turn-around at all [a nuclear disarmament is not going to be just unilateral], although it is quite logical.
And Bolton’s remarks about “applying the same approach to North Korea as they did to Libya” – is of course a horror. – Who would have any trust in the US?
And with Vicepresident Mike Pence doubling up, saying that a military option against North Korea is still on the table.
To me this sounds like Pence’s statement and Bolton’s horrifying comparison with Libya was done on purpose, since the US wants to back out of the summit and the meeting – and pursue its belligerent course against Pyongyang – this also on Bolton’s advice to Trump.
Bolton wants war. He was the one who basically instigated the war scenarios against Iraq.
Bolton does definitely not want peace, never wanted peace.
Will see what happens. But I also believe that the mid-June Singapore summit will not take place, or if it does, it probably won’t lead to anything that makes the two Koreas safer.
I believe the only good and sustainable thing is a peace agreement between the two Koreas, north and south – and that South Korea, as a sovereign nation, will ask the US for denuclearization of the Peninsula, to dismantle its military base, starting with the nuclear arsenal.
If this happens – a huge IF – it may be possible to bring Kim along.
Kim, I believe, knows he can count on China, and probably Russia too.
PressTV: What are Washington’s economic benefits by keeping the aggression on North Korea alive, instead of finding a diplomatic solution?
PK: War and conflicts are the US economy’s lifeline. Washington NEVER wants peace. Peace would mean the collapse of the US economy.
Besides, the US military-security industrial complex is one of the two key pillars that keep the US economy going.
The other one is global – actually by now only western – financial hegemony, commanded by the FED and wall street and supported by the two international financial Bretton woods Institutions, the World Bank and the IMF.
Clearly, Bolton is the equivalent of a first hand and open lobbyist for the US military industrial complex.
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Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Vineyard of The Saker Blog; and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.