Well I'm flabbergasted.

The annual war games between the US and South Korea, often the largest joint operations in the world including amphibious landing craft close to the Korean border, has served as a real source of anger for the North Koreans for decades. They were one of the prime drivers of their race to nuclearisation and missile technology.

I felt there was no way that Trump was going to give an inch on them nor the 12,000 US troops stationed on the Korean peninsular. But he has signaled that he wants to 'bring the soldiers home'.

Now I realise how much the Chinese want the US off their doorstep, and they do have a lot of influence over Kim Jong-un, but Kim still had to go into that meeting and get those concessions from Trump and somehow he managed to pull it off. What did he promise in return? To halt missile and nuclear weapon testing. Why wouldn't you if you had done significant testing and already had between 30 – 60 bombs in the arsenal.

This obviously has to have earned him huge kudos from China.

He has really surprised me.

//What did he promise in return? To halt missile and nuclear weapon testing.//

Which they've had to anyway since they destroyed their testing site.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/north-korea-nuclear-test-site-collapse-may-be-out-of-action-china

My inner cynic suspects that they'll back to their old tricks once they've established a new test site.

As the king of ignorance, misjudgment and silly ideas, you will continue to be flabbergasted. You might even grow up one day.

" the 12,000 US troops stationed on the Korean peninsular."

Its actually 28000 troops. So only out by 230% which for someone as clueless as our SR is actually a step in the right direction.

As usual those suffering TDS are desperately trying to spin the results of the summit.

Trump has given away nothing. He didn't promise a reduction in troops - that was merely an aspiration he mentioned after the summit. The US no longer needs to keep such large numbers in Korea. A trip-wire contingent of say 5000 would be enough. But the timing of the withdrawal is important lest it be seen as a retreat. So Trump will pick his time and pull them out at his discretion. I mentioned this a month ago.

He's also given up nothing in regards to the war-games. They've just completed their latest games and the next would be up to a year away. They can quickly and easily be reinstated if Kim doesn't play nice.

Equally Kim hasn't given away anything either. The summit was all about confidence building. Seeing if Kim is sincere in giving up his nukes and Kim seeing what he gets, including guarantees of his regimes safety, from the US.

The sanctions remain and can be upgraded if needs be. The ball's in Kim's court. The next 6 months will tell the story as to whether he's really prepared to have his promised denuclearisation verified.

The transition of the anti-Trumpers has been both funny and instructive. We've gone from being told that Trump's 'maximum pressure' policy toward Kim would start WW3, to being told that Trump is too naive in his desire to achieve peace. That these people don't even bother to be consistent in their views or acknowledge previous erroneous predictions is really par for the course.

Meanwhile Trump moves on. This might work. It might not. But we are potentially a lot closer to peace in that region than any time since the mid 1990s.

i just read media reports of how some Leftist media is already digging up Trumps most offensive remarks about North Korea etc. These irresponsible morons should literally be culled for treason.
Instead of hailing the prospect of peace, they keep stirring the prospects of disunity. Are there any othe groups of people more irresponsible & stupid than journalists ? Shouldn't tehir employers just sack them on the spot & if they don't fine the media outlet respnsible so heftily that they'll never again utter a word out of place.

Dear Steele,

This was taken from the CNN news report: -

CNN asks - "What happens now with US troops?"

We're then told that -

Kim came away with an unexpected gift, after Trump
shocked his allies in Seoul and his own military
by calling a halt to joint US-South Korean military
exercises about which Pyongyang has long fumed.

Trump called the exercises "provocative" - adopting
North Korea's own rhetoric and said cancelling them
for as long as dialogue was working out would save
a lot of money.

Trump's offer reinforces worries in Congress that the
President, who has long disputed the value of US
garrisons abroad is preparing to put the presence of
thousands of US troops on the negotiating table.

This will delight China, which is seeking to overtake
the US as the premier military power in the Asia Pacific
region. No wonder South Korea and Japan are very concerned.
We should be as well.