U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton says he will tell Russian officials that economic sanctions must be maintained on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Bolton arrived in Moscow on Sunday shortly after the U.S. President Donald Trump announced that his country would quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
While the United States keeps putting pressure on the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons, it seems hypocritical, given its recent record when it comes to Russia.
Trump, demanding for more nuclear weapons, said at a rally in the U.S. state of Nevada on Saturday: "We'll have to develop those weapons. We're going to terminate the agreement and we're going to pull out."
A recent report released by the Arms Control Association estimates that the United States possesses more than 6,500 nuclear warheads.
And what's the number of nuclear warheads that the DPRK holds? Fifteen.
Maybe that is why Trump was so confident when he said he has a bigger and more powerful “nuclear button” than DPRK's Kim Jong Un.
Trump also asserted the U.S. has a tremendous amount of money to play with the military. Then where does this "tremendous amount of money" come from? Congress, of course. Trump's fiscal 2019 budget calls for more than one trillion U.S. dollars in defense spending over the Obama administration's 10-year plan.
It argues that “failure to provide adequate funding to meet these defense objectives would embolden America's enemies.”
More nuclear weapons, more military spending... It's as though Trump is asking the DPRK to become a vegetarian while beefing America up as a carnivore.
The DPRK's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the UN General Assembly in its annual September gathering that "without any trust in the U.S., there will be no confidence in our national security and under such circumstances, there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first."
Just as the DPRK's top diplomat says, it takes two to build trust, and actions speak louder than words.
