Figuratively speaking, North Korea is patting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the head and telling him take a nap.
South Korean officials have pointed their fingers at National Security Adviser John Bolton and blamed him for the stalemate that currently exists between the U.S. and North Korea, but North Korean officials are pointing their fingers at Pompeo.
Pompeo, they say, is a big baby.
KCNA quoted [foreign ministry official Kwon Jong Gun], who is in charge of U.S. affairs, as saying the Vietnam summit, the second between the two leaders, showed that talks could go wrong “whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in.”
“I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,” Kwon said.
“Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us.”
I couldn't help but laugh at this, but not necessarily because of what they're saying about Pompeo.
I don't know if Pompeo has behaved poorly in front of North Korean officials, but I would say it's more likely than not that Trump will quietly sideline Pompeo at some point in the near future because the North told him to.
Trump is already predisposed to thinking he's the only smart person in the room and both the North and South Korean governments are telling him that he is the solution and his advisers are the problem.
My own personal opinion is that Trump is the problem. Whatever baggage Pompeo, Bolton, or anyone else brings to the table is nothing compared to Trump's incoherent and fleeting whims.
North Korean state media also reported this morning that Kim Jong-un oversaw the testing a new 'tactical weapon,' but did not elaborate on the nature of the weapon.
I don't think it's a coincidence that this news broke on the morning the redacted Mueller report was released to the public.