Image: Chinese-Korean relations. The Manchu ambassador Akdun was greeted by the Korean king near the Yeongeunmun Gate (迎恩門 lit. “gate of receiving imperial favor”), which was located outside the walls of Hanseong. After staying a hotel named Hongjewon (弘濟院), the envoys of the Manchu Qing Empire reached Mohwagwan (慕華館 lit. “building of longing for China”), where they received a reception from the king, and then entered the capital.
Gordon Chang, Daily Beast agrees that the story in East Asia is violence and doubt. The undistinguished dictator of the failed state of North Korea calls Pres Trump “a heedless old man.” UN SC meets on Wednesday to discuss, in “an emergency meeting,” the North Korean missile program. Its Christmas gift may be a nuclear detonation over the Pacific Ocean. As for Beijing, it’d like the US to go to China to ask for help in negotiations; then China would ask for something in return. I doubt that Pres Trump will fall for that. The just-issued jobs report is spectacular, whereas their economy is slumping, including a fall in exports for November. The jobs report is a blast below the waterline for China.
North Korea will ask for cash; will Pres Trump send some? I doubt it; last time, he just got up and walked out of the room. By now, it’s Kim who looks like the bad guy. DPRK’s statements are about Trump’s impeachment and his domestic difficulties; that Trump needs success with North Korea to win the 2020 election Boy, have they go that wrong. Likewise, China thinks that Trump needs a trade deal to win; wrong again.
As for Moon, he’s been telling Trump that now’s the time for reconciliation with DPRK, and then DPRK acts [horridly], makes Moon look bad; his popularity is in the low 40s. Moon is extremely ideological; his goals are to get US off the peninsula, reunify with the North, and makes the whole thing a vassal state to China. Kim family uses violence to upset the status quo. He’s sort of hit the wall in what he can do these days
