AROUND THE BLOCK
I learned today
I learned today that Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean “dear leader” Kim Jung Un held a summit meeting today in the Russian Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the two dictators had high hopes for their first one-on-one meeting, which came amid deadlocked global diplomacy over the North Korean leader’s nuclear program.
It was Kim’s first visit to Russia as North Korean leader; his late father, Kim Jong Il, visited Russia in 2011. The North Korean leader evoked his father’s “great love for Russia” and said that he intends to strengthen ties between the two countries.
The summit follows two meetings between Kim and U.S. president Donald Trump. Those meetings resulted in the North Koreans being increasingly frustrated at the deadlocked negotiations. Last week, North Korea tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the nuclear talks.
CNN reported that Putin said he was “pleased” with the outcome of the meeting saying, “We are all pleased with the outcome of the talks -- both I and my colleagues,” the Russian leader said.
“Chairman Kim Jong Un is a fairly open person, leading a free discussion on all issues that were on the agenda.”
But, what was on the agenda?
Since neither Putin nor Kim speaks the other's language, translators were employed.
Inside sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk, said that following the precedent set by Trump, translators’ notes were destroyed immediately following the meeting.
To ensure complete confidentiality however, Kim proposed, and Putin enthusiastically agreed, that not only should the notes be destroyed but that the translators be “eliminated.” It is not clear whether the dictators called on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (aka MBS-BAAS) to carry out the elimination.
Upon hearing on how Putin and Kim took care of the messy translator notes problem, Trump tweeted, “Heard my dear frends (sic) Vladimir and Kim have great way to eliminate leaks to the fake media. Why didn’t I think of that?!?!”
In a rare instance of Trump’s advisors exercising some restraint on their boss, staffers immediately pulled the post down.
When questioned about the incident, White House press secretary and senior flak, Sarah Huckabee “Colonel” Sanders told the press, “What tweet? Once again disreputable news outlets like Around the Block are promoting fake news.”
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