A senior foreign policy advisor to former President Barack Obama lashed-out at President Trump over the weekend; saying the Commander-in-Chief was not “equipped” to enter negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Top Obama staffer Ben Rhodes was speaking with ABC News when he voiced his concerns over whether Trump was “prepared” to take on Kim directly; saying the President was “declaring a victory” but so far “nothing has really happened yet.”
Former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser @brhodes on North Korea: "We want a diplomatic track with North Korea to succeed… so I think the nation should be rooting for diplomacy to work with North Korea, and that's certainly President Obama's view." #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/sB7amQAGQf
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 11, 2018
“We have a lot of concerns with how they’ve handled the State Department, how they’ve handled science. How they’ve been erratic on this issue of North Korea; the Secretary of State seemed to be cut-out of the process,” said Rhodes.
“I have not seen any evidence that they’re equipped for this negotiation,” he added. “We have to realize that there’s nothing more complex than nuclear negotiations, there’s no place in the world more volatile than the Korean peninsula, you cannot just approach this like a reality show.”
The Obama aide’s harsh rhetoric comes just days after President Trump announced his intention to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un by May; praising the diplomatic breakthrough after the despot vowed to “freeze” his nuclear program and halt future missile tests.
AMERICA’S GAME? NFL Blocks New AD MOCKING North Korean Dictator
The National Football League continues to struggle with patriotic fans and furious viewers as it heads into its iconic Super Bowl weekend; this time rejecting an advertisement poking fun at North Korean despot Kim Jong Un.
According to the Daily Caller, the ad takes a light-hearted jab at the brutal dictator, with an actor portraying Kim attempting -but failing- to steal AML BitCoin’s “crypto-currency” to highlight the digital cash’s security measures against foreign hackers.
Apparently, the advertisement was “too political” for the National Football League, which made headlines throughout the 2017 season for overt political demonstrations on the field.
“We have been informed by our media buyers that the network carrying the NFL’s Super Bowl game, NBC, will not accept our television ad ‘North Korea Can’t Steal AML BitCoin’ for placement during the broadcast.” AML Bitcoin president Marcus Andrade said.
“An ad taking Kim Jong-un, dictator of North Korea, to task in a humorous and biting way should not be offensive to anyone,” he added. “Our ad reminds viewers that Kim Jong-un and his army of hackers have been stealing billions of dollars of Bitcoin and other digital currencies for the past few years.”
The NFL’s rejection comes just days after the league angered patriotic fans when it refused to allow a veteran’s group to place a pro-American advertisement in the official Super Bowl program.
h/t Daily Caller
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: The Moment North Korean Defector DASHES Across DMZ
It’s not uncommon for North Korean defectors to find their way into South Korea, but nearly all cases involve routing through China before heading towards the staunch US ally.
Current estimates say only four people have successfully crossed the DMZ in several years.