I'd very much like to hear from our colleague IS MISE. He fought in the Korean war in the 'fifties, as such he'd obviously have some worthwhile opinion on the Topic?

So according to SR, he didn't make a mistake when he said there were "12,000 US troops stationed on the Korean peninsular" because there were 12000 troops doing something sometime somewhere...or something. The lengths some will go to beclown themselves when denying error is really amusing.

As to the wargames....

"Pompeo said he was in the room when Trump agreed to halt long-running military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea that have angered Pyongyang.

Trump "made it very clear that the condition precedent for the exercises not to proceed was a productive, good-faith negotiations being ongoing," Pompeo said. "And at the point it’s concluded that they are not, the president’s commitment to not have those joint exercises take place will no longer be in effect. I mean, he was unambiguous about that and how he communicated it both I think at the press conference but certainly when he was with Chairman Kim as well."

So as I said earlier and SR seemed to miss, the wargames are off for so long as Kim plays nice. The second Trump and his advisers deem that Kim isn't being completely sincere, the games will be on so fast it'll make their heads spin.

I'd expect that at some point Trump will need to use that stick to keep the NK in line and moving forward. In the same way as Trump cancelled the talks when NK started to drag their heels, the wargames will be held back as a means to refocus everyone's attention should they become less than fully co-operative.

There's been some gold medal winning moving of goalposts going on since the successes Trump has had to date.

Remember when Trump's trash talking to Kim was gunna start WW3? Well now it seems that Trump's talking nice to Kim is really bad and elevates Kim to levels that he doesn't deserve.

Suddenly it seems that the political prisoners in the NK gulags are the biggest problem and Trump is an utter failure for not convincing Kim to get rid of them two weeks from next Tuesday...or something.
Never mind that there's no way to do that short of war, or that attempts to coerce NK into changing internal policy would only cause them to assume that regime change was the ultimate aim and therefore stop all negotiations.

The way to close the gulags is to get NK to join the 21st century.

But the hypocrisy is profound. Anyone remember these people complaining that Obama didn't talk human rights when he opened up to Cuba? Me either. Anyone remember these people complain that Obama threw plane loads of money at Iran but didn't talk to them about their human rights? me either.

The left is terrified that Trump's new approach to these problems seems to be working and so they are seeking to change the goals as the old goals are met. I remember the same process being applied to Reagan as his policies succeeded.

There's a long way to go with Kim before total success can be declared but Trump has got further than any other president and he's done it by following policies that the so-called experts have advised against for the past 30 years. There are lots of people whose reputation and livelihoods will be destroyed if Trump succeeds and they hope he doesn't even though success would be good for NK/USA/world.

There's a joke doing the rounds that if Trump found the cure for cancer, the left and his other enemies would complain about how all the oncology nurses would loose their jobs.

I remember the times When Julia Gillard was Prime
Minister - if she was to walk on water - the
Murdoch press - headlines would read -
"Prime Minister can't swim!"

Hi FOXY...

It wasn't a case of, whether Ms GILLARD could walk on water, she actually thought she could! She was the worst PM since Federation, with Mr RUDD running a very close second. Both individuals would make excellent dissertation topics, for Criminal Law (Honours) students.

you summed it up well mhaze