[Peace-discuss] Tim Shorrock on Korea & American pundits

[David Green]

*AMY GOODMAN:* Let me ask you about the issue of media coverage of the
possible rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula. In a recent article
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/us/politics/trump-north-korea.html> in *The
New York Times* headlined “As Two Koreas Talk Peace, Trump’s Bargaining
Chips Slip Away,” Mark Landler expressed skepticism that the meeting
between the South and North Korean leaders could be beneficial to the U.S.,
concluding, quote, “The talk of peace is likely to weaken the two levers
that Mr. Trump used to pressure Mr. Kim to come to the bargaining table. A
resumption of regular diplomatic exchanges between the two Koreas, analysts
said, will inevitably erode the crippling economic sanctions against the
North, while Mr. Trump will find it hard to threaten military action
against a country that is extending an olive branch,” unquote. Meanwhile,
Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O’Hanlon had this to say on
Friday.

*MICHAEL O’HANLON:* President Trump’s going to have to rein in his more
ambitious goals and yet still drive a relatively hard line and not give
away too much for an interim or partial agreement. … The denuclearization
idea, however, is a long ways from even getting seriously started, because
we’ve heard this kind of talk before. We know that North Korea means
something else by the concept of denuclearization than we think we hear
with our Western ears. And I haven’t seen even any realistic discussion of
what would be the first steps or any kind of an interim deal along the way.

*AMY GOODMAN:* Tim Shorrock, your response to all of these comments?

*TIM SHORROCK:* Well, Michael O’Hanlon has been so wrong on so many things,
like Iraq and Afghanistan, for so long, I don’t know why anybody is
listening to him. But he’s completely wrong. He apparently has not read
this Panmunjom Declaration, for one thing.

But let me get back to that *Times* piece. I mean, you know, I quoted from
that—I quote from that in my next article and my last one in *The Nation*.
I also talked about his reporting. I mean, that statement, that somehow it
comes out that, you know, a peace agreement is bad for the U.S. national
security because it will prevent Trump from taking military action, what
kind of talk is that for a reporter? He depends on all the establishment,
you know, pundits and experts in town, rounds them all up to make this
analysis.

It’s just amazing to me to see the Washington consensus. I mean, people
here in Washington, in the press and in the pundit class, they make fun of
North Korea for being this totalitarian state where everyone thinks the
same and has to do what the leader says. Well, the lockstep groupthink here
in Washington is very similar. It’s just they all say the same thing. You
can read the same analysis that you just heard from Brookings, that you
just saw in *The New York Times*, you can see that, you know, in *Post*, in
all these hot takes that appear in the *Post*, *The Atlantic*, *The New
Yorker*. Everybody thinks the same way in this pundit class here in
Washington.

Nobody takes Korea, South Korea, seriously, nobody takes North Korea
seriously, that South Korea and North Korea mapped out a procedure, a plan,
to denuclearize and to decompress and to move toward a peace regime and
decrease the tensions. And South Korea took steps today, for example, that
they said they were going to end all hostile acts. One of those hostile
acts is these huge speakers they have set up in the DMZ to broadcast
propaganda and broadcast K-pop into North Korea. They’re taking them down
today. They’re taking these steps, one by one, to move toward this peace
that’s been denied to Korea for so long.

And I think American pundits should be—you know, applaud South Korea for
taking these steps, and applaud North Korea. You see these—you see these
stories like, you know, eight months ago, North Korea must denuclearize,
must say they’re going to denuclearize. You see this all over. And then,
all of a sudden, they say they’re going to denuclearize, and then the
headline is “U.S. Wary of North Korea Saying They’re Going to
Denuclearize.” I mean, you know, give it a break. You know, open your eyes.
Try to understand what’s actually happening in North Korea and South Korea.
And the fact is, the United States cannot control Korea anymore. The United
States has been in Korea militarily since 1945. And it’s time to end this
colonial-like relationship the U.S. has with South Korea.
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