Speech and book reviews, expert interviews and news you can use on cyber-security, U.S. national security and global security matters from Lisa Bernard, President of Lisa Bernard's SecuritySpeak, LLC - a private consulting firm and speakers bureau.
Showing posts with label Trump-Kim Summit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump-Kim Summit. Show all posts
As U.S. President Donald Trump was wrapping up his historic summit with North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un with denuclearization a key topic on their agenda, my thoughts were on another meeting to be hosted by Kim Jong Un - that with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Though no date for the Pyongyang meeting has been decided, the timing of the announcement of this is intriguing, even suspicious. North Korea and Syria share a decades-long history of military collaboration and technology transfers. While North Korea has halted testing of nuclear weapons and missiles in advance of the Trump-Kim summit, the country continues to enrich uranium and remains a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.
On Tuesday afternoon, June 12, 2018, I was eager to interview The Honorable Frederic C. Hof, former United Stated Special Advisor on transition in Syria on a host of developments in the Middle East. We met at Bard College's Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City where Ambassador Hof is teaching a seminar, Ten Principles for Effective Diplomacy. I immediately posited my concern that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula might bring with it the transfer of nuclear material and paraphernalia to a receptive Syria. His response:
Ambassador Hof, an authority on Arab and Middle East affairs, and I continued to discuss trends that are defining a new Middle East. The interview will be posting in the upcoming weeks.
Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security. Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life. To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net. See more of their work at www.SecuritySpeak.net and at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.
When word of a possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was announced, I took a momentary step back from the daunting issues associated with the North Korean nuclear build-up to look at the two individuals creating this historic event. A few facts about them put them in an exclusive club. Both men are sons of fathers who cast long shadows across the family enterprises. Each man is married to a younger, empirically beautiful and stylish woman. They each have young children. Both live in palatial homes and enjoy the trappings of great wealth. Both are viewed cautiously by the world at large and their bombast and inflammatory rhetoric have left many aghast and some even scared given the military arsenals they command. Add to that the nearly forty-year age difference and it begs the question, "Is it possible that a 'paternal' or even 'grand-paternal' dynamic between the elder President Trump, age 71, and his junior partner Supreme Leader Kim, age 34, could frame or influence their interpersonal dynamic and help them move us out of the nuclear danger zone?"
Of course it is possible that President Trump and Supreme Leader Kim will enter the same room and engage in that uniquely human activity of recognizing that the time has come to do what is both practical and radical and right all at the same time - that all the military preparation, economic imperatives, political dynamics - and the fatigue and fears factors that accompany them - will synthesize into a fresh and clear shared vision. We can certainly hope so. But personal chemistry is one of those non-quantifiable factors that can be assessed by historians and analysts only after the fact. In the hours before these men meet, we must return to the realities that brought us to this point in the first place. This reminds me of the question I posed in April to Gordon G. Chang, author of NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN: North Korea Takes on the World, as plans for a summit were being explored. His response:
That said, he went on to share:
Time will tell, as the adage goes. And so we wait - with all eyes on Singapore for history of some kind to be made.
Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security. Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life. To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net. See more of their work at www.SecuritySpeak.net and at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.
Twice in as many months we've learned of secret and surprise meetings between North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and China's President Xi Jinping, the more recent of which is taking place at the time of this writing and on the very day that U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a date and a venue have been decided for this historic Trump-Kim Summit. This reminds me of the question I posed last month to Gordon G. Chang, author of NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN: North Korea Takes on the World, as plans for a summit were being explored. I wanted to know if Kim Jong Un is aware of America's unique history and knack for turning enemies into prosperous and protected allies - Japan as the most obvious in North Korea's purview. And, if so, how this might factor in to Kim Jong Un's thinking now that the major power heads of state are American President Trump for no more than two or six years, Russian President Putin for the foreseeable future and Chinese President Xi Jinping for life. Could the narrow window of opportunity to "make a deal" with POTUS 45 be compelling to Kim? His response:
Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security. Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life. To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net. See more of their work at www.SecuritySpeak.net and at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.
Clear from President Trump's press conference yesterday is that his approach to his summit with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is holistic and sensitive to the distinct concerns of American allies on and beyond the theater of the Korean Peninsula. While the United States is vulnerable to North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles, allies like South Korea and Japan are vulnerable to the regime's increasingly mobile and precise short and intermediate-range rockets. A curious addition to the North Korean arsenal was spotted on February 8th of this year at the Pre-Olympics Military Parade in Pyongyang. Carried on hinged Transporter-Erector-Launchers (TELs - pictured below) was what appeared to be a variant of the Russian Iskander missile, perhaps now solid-fuelled for a faster, longer range and more agile version. Any enhanced "shoot and scoot" capability for the North Koreans is particularly troubling to South Korea and worrisome for Japan.
Photo Credit: The Diplomat
It's been more than two months since the photo-op for for this new missile - dubbed the "Juche-Iskander" for it's distinctly North Korean innovations or renovations of the Russian prototype. But we still don't know if this rocket is short or intermediate-range as it has not been flight-tested. I wondered if this was part of Kim Jong Un's conciliatory pause in missile testing in advance of the Trump-Kim Summit or if there was something else in play. I asked as much of Gordon G. Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World, in my interview with him on April 14, 2018. He replied:
I then pressed him to address the concerns in the context of the Trump-Kim Summit about this smaller and possibly non-nuclear missile that has military strategists concerned - beyond the worry of the damage it could do when priced-right and sold by North Korea in the global marketplace. He responded:
More from my interview with Gordon Chang will be posted in advance of the Trump-Kim Summit. In the interim, I urge you to follow him @GordonGChang and read his articles at www.TheDailyBeast.com. See him live if you can or hear him on radio on The John Batchelor Show on 770 AM in the greater New York City area. His talks, commentary and analyses are timely and cutting edge.
Photo Credit: Lydia Chang
Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security. Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life. To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net. See more of their work at www.SecuritySpeak.net and at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.
This morning I was on my way to interview Gordon G. Chang on the upcoming Trump-Kim Summit when I heard the Pentagon briefing and commentaries on the strikes on Syrian chemical weapons arsenals. Chief Spokeswoman Dana White emphasized that this operation was different from the 2017 strike on Syria's Shayrat Air Base in that it targeted Bashar al-Assad's production capability rather than his delivery vehicles. General McKenzie detailed the contributions of British and French forces and noted that Russian air defenses were not deployed. The European Union called on Russia and Iran to help stop future chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government. What I did not hear or read in any of the reports or analyses is the role of North Korea in the Syrian chemical weapons program. Gordon Chang is the author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World and a leading authority on North Korean, Chinese and regional military and security affairs. On the eve of the 2016 Presidential election I heard him deliver a briefing entitled, The New Nuclear Nexus: China, Iran and North Korea. In it, he revealed the eye-opening extent of North Korea's strategic relationships with other autocratic regimes. I jumped at the chance to ask him about the relationship between North Korea and Syria with respect to chemical weapons. His response:
My full interview with Gordon Chang will be posted in advance of the Trump-Kim Summit. In the interim, I urge you to follow him @GordonGChang and read his articles at www.TheDailyBeast.com. See him live if you can or hear him on radio on The John Batchelor Show on 770 AM in the NY area. His talks, commentary and analyses are always timely and cutting edge.
Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security. Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life. To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net. See more of their work at www.SecuritySpeak.net and at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime. Very special thanks go to Lydia and Gordon Chang for their ever-gracious efforts to keep the level of discourse on these critical issues at a high and dignified plane and to the Charles Dillon Public Library for providing the venue for Lisa Bernard's interview of Gordon Chang.
