Gareth Porter comes back on the show to give his thoughts on the recent Singapore summit. The center left and center right establishments, according to Porter, hysterically oppose efforts at diplomacy, in part because they’ve tied themselves to opposing everything President Trump does. The mainstream media continues to push the narrative that the U.S. gains nothing from these negotiations, even though Kim agreed before the talks took place to halt his country’s testing of nuclear weapons and ICBMs. They also claim that cancelling military exercises threatens our relationship with South Korea, completely overlooking the fact that the negotiations have been led in large part by South Korean president Moon Jae-in from the start. Porter provides evidence that North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons has been a strategic move to bring South Korea and the U.S. to the table, going all the way back to Kim Il-sung, but fears opponents of Trump may sabotage any efforts at peace.

Discussed on the show:

• “An Elite Coalition Emerges Against a Trump-Kim Agreement” (Consortium News)
• “Thank Goodness for a Villain” (Newsweek)
• South Korea NDAA Amendment
• “How Cheney and His Allies Created the North Korea Nuclear Missile Crisis” (Truthout)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Zen Cash; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; LibertyStickers.com; and ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.
Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download