Moon made the bold claim while speaking to several media agencies in Seoul on Wednesday. However a top official in NK's Foreign Ministry, Kwon Jong Gun, accused the president of lying "to refurbish their image" and give the impression that South Korea is "mediating" a nuclear deal.

"If we have anything to liaise with the US, it will be simply done through the liaison channel already under operation between the DPRK and the US, and the negotiation, if any, will be held face to face between the DPRK and the US," Kwon, director general of the Department of American Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, told state media on Thursday.

He added that no such engagement would "go through the South Korean authorities."

A thinly veiled threat that this could happen came from Randall Schriver, the US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. In an interview with South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo daily, the Pentagon official said the US "doesn't want to see a situation arise where we don't have confidence in sharing sensitive information with our ally."

Directly asked if the flow of intel on North Korea would stop over the Huawei row, he said: "We hope that situation doesn't come about."
...
Seoul has so far not moved to take any action against Huawei, leaving the decision of which equipment to use in a nationwide upgrade to 5G in the hands of its providers. One of its three major carriers, LG Uplus, chose Chinese base stations and transmitters, while two others bought hardware from Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, and Nokia.

South Korea, which sells about a quarter of its export goods to China, has previously felt how devastating Beijing's economic retaliation can be. After the previous Korean administration agreed in 2017 to host American THAAD anti-missile systems in defiance of Chinese objections, South Korean firms faced an unofficial boycott from China. The tourist industry alone lost US$6.7 billion over nine months, according to the South Korean government. Cosmetic firms, car makers, and TV drama producers were hit as well.

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"We do not want our territory to be a staging post for any hostile action against any of our neighbors, including Iran," Iraq's President Barham Salih told CNN, noting that there is no agreement between Baghdad and Washington that could make Donald Trump think he can use it as such.

Watching the Democrat debate/take turn interview, makes it clear why they lose. Everyone there played up a demographic niche and there were no real people. The first words out of some their mouths were qualifiers based on the "as-a" complex. It was rehearsed as heck. Trump will eat these disconnected robot people. There was one exception and that was Tulsi Gabbard. She was the only one who did any real debating. She was the only one to challenge a position that is promoted by the majority of both parties. She was the only one to outline an issue that is actually up to the president, foreign policy.

The rest of them were giving high sounding platitudes about healthcare and the environment, things that are up to the legislative branch where many of them already are and yet have done nothing about. The president does not dictate education or healthcare. The president does however act as Commander and Chief and can decide to waste trillions of dollars on military misadventures, something Democrats and Republicans are both guilty of supporting. Regardless of what domestic issues are of concern, the bottom line in the bottom line. How are you going to pay for them? You can either increase taxes, lower costs, or reduce spending. Ending the warfare for welfare state would both reduce spending and lower costs. No one but Tulsi suggested this. All anyone else had to say was horrible rhetoric about carbon taxes, and costly regulations, something the public can not stomach or stand for or afford. Dear Democrats, Stop Punishing the Working Class or you will lose again.

Tulsi sticks it to the chicken-hawk neocons

Tulsi explains basics of Afghanistan to a nobody loser. This reminded me of Ron Paul putting John McCain in his place.

Not surprisingly, the cast of MSNBC hipsters, comprised of Miss Russiagate conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow, self righteous Chuck Todd and the jabronis, did not see it fit to ask about Internet censorship even right after Google was exposed in an undercover investigation of aiming to hack the elections. This is something mad dog Maddow accused the Russians of doing basically daily for the past couple years. It is very telling of the MSM that they simply ignored this huge story and threat to democracy.

The Drudge Report political website posted a surprising instant poll showing that its visitors believed Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii was the overwhelming victor of the first Democratic presidential debate, polling at almost 35% with 12,314 votes.

Her closest competitor was Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who was polling at just under 13.5% and 4,791 votes. Julián Castro of Texas and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey were polling the lowest with less than 5% each.

Tulsi Gabbard also won the Washington Examiner poll. by a strikingly similar margin - 34.15% for the Hawaii congresswoman and 23.06% for Warren.

Although unscientific, the two polls indicated that the Hawaii congresswoman, 38, who had attracted attention for her silver-streaked hair and denunciation of President Trump's "chicken hawk cabinet" had made a major impact on the nine-candidate stage.

An Iraq war veteran, she served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and was also deployed to Kuwait from 2008-2009. In her January 2019 campaign kickoff, Gabbard promised to end regime change wars and to only authorize war on direct enemies of the United States. In the debate, she promised to end America's wars, saying: "This insanity must end."

Gabbard's most famous international foray was to Syria in 2017. In Damascus for a "fact-finding" mission," she met Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who stood accused of using chemical weapons against his own people during the country's civil war, killing hundreds.

In April 2017, she said she was "skeptical" the Assad regime was behind the attack and called for an investigation after the U.S. launched a missile strike in response. "Assad is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States," she said.

The second-youngest of the 25 candidates in the Democratic race, she is married to Abraham Williams, a cinematographer and surfer who is seven years her junior. She was previously married to Eduardo Tamayo, her childhood sweetheart, divorcing in 2006 after four years of wedlock.

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