President Trump has announced via his preferred platform that the historic talks between the United States and North Korea will take place on June 12th in Singapore. Regardless the final outcome, this meeting will set the blueprint for all future discussions and marks the welcoming back of one of the world’s last six “rogue states.” Yet the dialogues may be doomed to failure before they even begin, and the fault will not lie with Trump’s unique style but rather the Western media that seems determined to derail any chance of a positive result.
Pressures at play
In what appears to be an effort to downplay any success for President Trump, the leftist media have begun attacking North Korea in a way that could push the regime even further away. The “usual suspects” have been fully engaged in dismissing the historic importance of this meeting suggesting that either it is international sanctions that have pressured the nation into reaching out, or that any deal with Kim Jong Un would not be worth the paper it is written on.
Whilst admitting that Trump had a part to play in this, Bloomberg gives the overwhelming credit not to the two leaders working toward peace on the Korean peninsula, but to international pressure and sanctions, stating that:
“…only a serious and sustained pressure campaign, with no loopholes, is likely to convince Kim that he can neither buy off the U.S. with a false peace offering nor continue to threaten international security.”
Other established news media outlets have suggested that President Trump is not smart enough to realize that he is in some way being “played” by Kim. CNN, perhaps unsurprisingly, touted the idea that Kim was leading the president down a vainglorious path by suggesting that the dictator would use Trump’s “ignorance” against him:
“This strategy may be clever, but it is not without risk. Kim has no reason to trust the United States -- after all, he knows what happened to Libya and Ukraine. But he may believe that Trump's desire for a "win," combined with his utter disregard for US alliances and complete ignorance of the region, makes him an easy mark.”
North Korean Voices
This media posturing has not gone unnoticed by the North Korean state. The KCNA (the portal for North Korean news) has reacted badly to what they see as the machinations of a petty U.S. media. In an editorial by Pak Chol Jun, he sets out the “official reaction” to the perceived attacks:
“It is clear that those calling for "tightened and sustained sanctions and pressure" will not be welcomed wherever they go but meet failure and disgrace only, today when the improvement of the inter-Korean relations and détente and peace on the Korean peninsula have become an irresistible trend.
The U.S. is persistently clinging to the hostile policy toward the DPRK, misleading the public opinion. Such behavior may result in endangering the security of its own country.
The U.S. should refrain from making words and acts that may destroy the hard-won atmosphere of dialogue. It should be aware that doing so will benefit itself, too, and make every effort to show its sincerity in line with the present situation.”
All news out of North Korea is “official news” and as such represents the considered opinion of the government. Is the U.S. media’s affected attitude towards the “Dear Leader” and the talks in general likely to impact the direction the already tense negotiations take?
A Cost too Great
At the heart of these negotiations is the life, freedom, and well-being of 25 million human beings. If the talks fail, these souls will be cast back into a darkness that few in the West can even conceive.
It is essential for the U.S. to maintain a free press committed to reporting the facts and events that take place in the world, but this unhealthy bias is not journalism, and it is a far cry from impartial reporting. It is detrimental to the future of millions and seems hell-bent on destroying any hope of a successful outcome.
It is time for the left-leaning media to ask themselves a serious question: Are they willing to sacrifice the hopes of an entire nation simply to reinforce their view of President Trump? No one is asking for them to curb their integrity, merely to report the truth, unbiased and impartial.
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