EDITORIAL
June 12, 2018: The Spirit of the New Silk Road Shines in Its Full Glory
June 12 (EIRNS)—This day will be remembered in history, not only for the extraordinary achievement in Korea brought about by Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae-in, Xi Jinping, Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin, but because the “Spirit of the New Silk Road” has taken another giant step forward in bringing peace and development to the entire world.
The Joint Statement signed and released by Chairman Kim and President Trump is reproduced below. It states clearly that the new relationship between the U.S. and the D.P.R.K. “will contribute to peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.” In a press conference following the Summit, President Trump spoke profoundly about the transformation taking place in the world as a whole. He began: “I stand before you as a representative of the Unites States to deliver a message of hope and vision, and a message of peace.” He said that the successful Summit proved that “real change is indeed possible”; that “the past does not have to define the future”; that “anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace.” He concluded, correctly, that “It’s a very great moment in the history of the world.”
It is being understood around the world that this historic event in Singapore, and the similarly transformational meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which took place over the June 9-10 weekend in Qingdao, stand in stark contrast to the chaos at the G7 meeting in Quebec, where Trump declared that Putin should be at the table if anything of use were to be accomplished. Trump received full backing from the newly elected Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte, while Shinzo Abe has also refused to join in the Russia bashing, and is working closely with President Putin on joint development projects. What is left of the G7—France, Germany, Canada and the U.K.—may end up being the G4, if they fail to break from the British Empire’s desperate effort to sustain the division of the world into East and West.
History is being made in Asia, not in the decrepit economies and cultural decay of the West. Trump’s appreciation of China and Russia reflects his recognition that, working together, great changes can be made for the betterment of mankind as a whole, and that the U.S. itself can only be restored to its former greatness by being part of the Spirit of the New Silk Road, as Helga Zepp-LaRouche has described it. This Spirit is contagious, inspiring cultural optimism, and standing in stark contrast to the cultural pessimism which has increasingly infected Europe and the United States over the past fifty years.
Mrs. LaRouche, after watching Trump’s Singapore press conference, observed that Trump had refused to be provoked by the hysterical, war-mongering Western media, but rather showed total confidence that the new paradigm for peace through development were both possible and necessary. This is what Lyndon LaRouche and this movement have been fighting for over these past fifty years. It is a time of historical transformation, a phase change in the topology of human development, in which the actions of a single individual can change the world. There should be no sitting on the fence. People should be told, boldly, to join with the LaRouche movement, to bring the Spirit of the New Silk Road to all of Mankind.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un Issue Joint Statement in Singapore
June 12 (EIRNS)—Here is the statement issued by U.S. President Donald J. Trump and D.P.R.K. Chairman Kim Jong Un at their summit today:
Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit
Issued on: June 12, 2018
President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.
President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the D.P.R.K., and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:
1. The United States and the D.P.R.K. commit to establish new U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. The United States and the D.P.R.K. will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the D.P.R.K. commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
4. The United States and the D.P.R.K. commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Having acknowledged that the U.S.-D.P.R.K. summit—the first in history—was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the D.P.R.K. commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level D.P.R.K. official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the U.S.-D.P.R.K. summit.
President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America
Kim Jong Un
Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
June 12, 2018
Sentosa Island
Singapore
Trump: A Message of Hope and Vision of Peace
June 12 (EIRNS)—In a press conference following his historic Summit with Chairman Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump conveyed in profound terms that this breakthrough in the “frozen conflict” of North Korea is a breakthrough for the entire world, and a model of a new paradigm for world affairs. Some quotes from his introduction:
— “I stand before you as representative of the United States to deliver a message of hope and vision and message of peace.”
— “I want to thank Chairman Kim for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people. Our unprecedented meeting, the first between an American President and leader of North Korea, proves that real change is indeed possible. My meeting with Chairman Kim was honest, direct, and productive. We got to know each other well in a very confined period of time.”
— “Yet while the armistice was agreed the war never ended to this day. Now we can have hope it will soon end, and it soon will. The past does not have to define the future. Yesterday’s conflict does not have to be tomorrow’s war. And as history has proven over and over again, adversaries can become friends. We can honor the sacrifice of our forefathers by replacing the horrors of battle with the blessings of peace. That’s what we’re doing and that’s what we have done.”
— “Chairman Kim has the chance to seize an incredible future for his people. Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. The current state of affairs not endure forever.”
— “The people of North Korea, North and South, are truly wonderful and gifted people. They share the same heritage and language and culture and destiny. To realize their amazing destiny and reunite their national family, the menace of nuclear weapons will now be removed.”
— “We dream of a future where all Koreans can live together in harmony, and where families are reunited and hopes are reborn, and where the light of peace chases away the darkness of war.”
— “It’s a very great moment in the history of the world.”
President Trump also played a four-minute video for Chairman Kim (in Korean), and also for the press conference (in English), which poses the two alternatives facing North Korea and the world—the old path of confrontation and war preparations, or the new path of development and cooperation. The video declares that only a few leaders are called upon to act in a way that the past does not define the future.
Trump: We Are Ending Our Provocative and Expensive War Games in Korea
June 12 (EIRNS)—President Trump announced during his press conference in Singapore that he is ending all military exercises in South Korea as long as negotiations are proceeding, calling them both “provocative” and hugely expensive.
“I used to say this during my campaign…, I want to get our soldiers out. I want to bring our soldiers back home. We have 32,000 soldiers in South Korea. I would like to be able to bring them back home. That’s not part of the equation. At some point, I hope it would be.”
But then he continued: “We will stop the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money…. Plus, I think it’s very provocative.”
He particularly pointed to the B-52’s flown in from Guam, at great expense, to “drop bombs all over the place and go back to Guam…. Under the circumstances that we are negotiating a comprehensive and complete deal, it is inappropriate to have war games. Number one, we save money—a lot. And number two, it really is something that I think they very much appreciate.”
Kim Jong Un: We Have Overcome Old Prejudices
June 12 (EIRNS)—Following their private meeting, Chairman Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump sat across from each other at a table with the press present. As Xinhua reported, Kim said:
“The way coming here was not easy. We had the past that grabbed our ankles, and old prejudices and practices that covered our eyes and ears. We are here after overcoming all these.”
Trump Invited to Pyongyang, Invited Kim to the White House
June 12 (EIRNS)—Asked at his Singapore press conference if he would be going to Pyongyang, Trump responded: “I will at the appropriate time. I also will be inviting Chairman Kim at the appropriate time to the White House. I would think it would be something that will be very important. He has accepted. I said at the appropriate time. We want to go further down the road.”
He repeated several times that the process had just begun, but that things would move quickly—in fact, he said, there had been much greater progress already than he had expected. The Joint Statement, he said was more comprehensive than he had expected, and that even more agreements were reached that were not included in the Statement, such as Kim’s pledge to shut down a missile engine testing ground, and to move forward on returning the remains of soldiers from the Korean War.
Sane Democrats in Congress Voice Support for Kim-Trump Summit; Lunatic Leadership Cries Havoc
June 12 (EIRNS)—Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and 14 other members of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in the House sent a letter to President Trump yesterday, on the eve of his summit with Chairman Kim Jong Un, backing his efforts to resolve the North Korea crisis.
“We are encouraged by your efforts to pursue direct diplomacy with North Korea with the dual goals of resolving the nearly seven-decade-long conflict and achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the 15 wrote.
“[D]iplomacy is the only path to resolve the tensions between our countries…. Accordingly, we stand ready to provide support for potentially historic progress made through diplomacy,” and will oppose any turn towards military force. (The letter expresses concern over advocates of the “Libya model” and demands of one-shot denuclearization.)
The signers, who include the Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raul Grijalva and Mark Pocan, and First Vice Chair Pramila Jayapal, the outspoken Iraq War veteran Tulsi Gabbard, Barbara Lee, Rick Nolan, Zoe Lofgren, and others, recognize the “broad popular mandate” for this diplomatic approach in both South Korea and the United States. “At a time when he has engaged in an unprecedented diplomatic effort, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has an 85% approval rating, while recent polls indicate that four out of five Americans support diplomacy with North Korea,” they acknowledge.
The Wall Street-owned Democratic leadership—Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, et al.—don’t give a hoot for a historic chance for peace which the vast majority of Americans want. Schumer denounced the Trump-Kim statement as “very worrisome,” giving the U.S. only “vague and unverifiable at best” promises, while “what North Korea has gained, however, is tangible and lasting…. We’ve legitimized a brutal dictator who’s starved his own people.” Ditto Pelosi, who expressed outrage that President Trump had treated North Korea with respect and as an equal, accusing President Trump with “raising North Korea to the level of the United States while preserving the regime’s status quo.”
Khanna slammed their mis-leadership this morning, tweeting out his interview with “Democracy Now!” and writing “@RoKhanna responds to top Democrats criticizing Trump’s handling of negotiations with North Korea: ‘It’s fine to criticize the president. But do we want to encourage the neoconservative view, or do we want to encourage an engagement towards peace?’ ”
For Gabbard, the “#TrumpKimSummit was historic & an important first step,” she said in a tweet today.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Is the EU Going To Implode over the Refugee Issue?
June 12 (EIRNS)—A new refugee crisis is raising the tension between Italy and EU partners, aggravating the split that already emerged at the birth of the new Italian government and again at the G7 Quebec meeting. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani called on EU leaders to quickly resolve the crisis, lest “the whole structure of the EU is at risk.”
After the Italian refusal to take in the NGO Aquarius ship with over 600 African refugees onboard, Spain agreed to take in the ship, but the Spanish government is threatening to sue the Italian government. France went even further, with President Emmanuel Macron accusing Rome of being “cynical” and “irresponsible” and his LREM party spokesman Deputy Gabriel Attal saying that the Italian position “is to puke.” Such statements were met in Rome with reminders of last year’s decision by Paris to close French ports in exactly the same way.
Italy has accused its EU partners of having left it to face the crisis alone by itself in the past years. The EU has blathered about “solidarity” and “Marshall Plan” but has done nothing so far.
The refugee crisis has just started. After weeks of bad weather and sea conditions, vessels are now able to leave Libya, knowing that NGO ships are cruising close to territorial waters, ready to pick up thousands of new refugees kindly put out to sea by traffickers. The so-called Tripoli government has lost control or does so on purpose, despite the deals, money, and equipment that was supplied by Italy’s previous Gentiloni government.
So, expect a new wave of refugees, which will test the hard line inaugurated by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who, after the Spanish decision, observed that “gently raising one’s voice does work.”
U.A.E.-Led Attack on Yemeni Port of Hodeidah Appears Imminent
June 12 (EIRNS)—The U.A.E.-led assault on the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah appears to be imminent, with Yemeni forces of the official Hadi government, backed by Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., continuing to advance up the coast towards the city’s airport. According to AFP, events on the ground are outrunning diplomatic and political efforts to forestall the attack, which humanitarian relief agencies warn will be a catastrophe for the civilian population. Yesterday, a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives had begun circulating a letter calling on Secretary of Defense James Mattis to help prevent a “catastrophic” military operation against Hodeidah. “In light of your April 2017 remarks that the war must be resolved ‘politically as soon as possible,’ we urge you to use all tools at your disposal to dissuade the Saudi-led coalition from moving forward with this offensive and reject the provision of U.S. logistical, military and diplomatic support for any such operation.” By late today, however, reports AFP, they had begun to lose faith in U.S. efforts to stop it, particularly after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump had given the operation a “blinking yellow light.”
Even the report that the Saudis had struck a Doctors Without Borders cholera treatment center with an air strike was not slowing down the U.A.E.-led offensive, though it added to the growing anger in the U.S. Congress. “The Yemen War is spiraling out of control,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) in a Twitter posting, including repeating in all caps: “The Saudi/U.A.E./U.S. coalition bombed a Doctors Without Borders cholera treatment facility earlier today.
“Let me repeat that—the U.S. helped bomb A DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS CHOLERA TREATMENT FACILITY.”
Merkel Sticks to ‘Fortress Europe’ Strategy, Provokes Crisis at Home
June 12 (EIRNS)—The new Italian government’s tough stance against Brussels-run refugee policies, which have been at the expense of the Italians, has stirred up the German Chancellor. Worried that Italy’s revolt can torpedo the EU’s refugee policies, Merkel has reiterated her loyalty to an all-European approach which aims at keeping refugees interned in North Africa. Only a handful of refugees would then be allowed into Europe, the rest would be kept away from the coastlines of the African countries.
This is the “Fortress Europe” approach, and the “Marshall Plan for Africa” which the EU also talks about, would mostly fund these North Africa internment sites. African governments that show cooperation with that, receive a bonus from the EU. However, no funds for real economic development in Africa are released by Europe.
This “Fortress” concept is one of the issues expected to rank prominently at the next EU Summit on June 21-22. In protest against Merkel’s EU line, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), who rather wants to put a priority on a national approach to the refugee issue, has halted the publication of his own “Master Plan Asylum” which was scheduled for today. Not that Seehofer’s plan is much better than Merkel’s, but all of a sudden, a new coalition crisis has erupted in the German government.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Gibraltar Strait Rail Tunnel Is Feasible
June 12 (EIRNS)—The Spanish Society for Studies of Fixed Communication across the Strait of Gibraltar SA (SECEGSA) President Rafael García-Monge Fernández told an engineering conference in Gibraltar that a rail tunnel connecting Spain and Morocco is still in the cards, provided eight specialized tunnel boring machines (TBM) can be built. One prototype TBM would cost €32 million to build, the entire project would cost €8 billion.
According to a Spanish newspaper Diario de Cadiz, García-Monge said a recent study by the University of Zurich and Herrenknecht, one of the world’s largest tunnelling firms, proved SECEGSA’s 38km tunnel is feasible. García-Monge further said all institutions involved “have to be willing to do it” in order for the project to be a success
Of the 38km, the tunnel would be underwater for 27km at a maximum depth of 475 meters and a slope of 3%. A 4km stretch of the underwater section which contains clay soils poses a challenge to the tunnel builders, but it can be done. According to SECEGSA, high-speed trains running through the tunnel would reduce travel times for freight traffic between the two countries, not to mention that it would be the first-ever direct rail connection between both continents.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Italian China Specialist Geraci Assesses the SCO Summit as Triumph for Xi Jinping
June 12 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Al Jazeera, Prof. Michele Geraci contrasted the failed G7 lowpoint with the successful Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Qingdao. “Michele Geraci, the head of Nottingham University’s China economic policy program, told Al Jazeera he believes the SCO summit and coinciding arrival of Kim Jong Un in Singapore for the meeting with Trump sends a clear message:
“ ‘Asia is playing a very important role. It’s sending the signal that the big changes, the big decisions are being made here,’ he said. ‘The West, the G7, which doesn’t include China or Russia, is kind of struggling not just with the rest of the world but now they’re starting to struggle with each other.
“ ‘This is a further triumph for Xi to become the pivotal player in the region first, but also rising to a more important role within the world,’ he said.”
Since the appearance of this interview, Professor Geraci has been appointed as Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Economic Development (Industry, Labor, Foreign Trade and Communications) in Italy’s new government.
OTHER
Helga Zepp-LaRouche Greets ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ Concert, Commemorating RFK, King
June 12 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, sent her greeting to the June 10 Schiller Institute NYC Chorus Concert “Dona Nobis Pacem: 1968-2018,” which commemorated the 50 years since the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The concert, performed at the scientific “Verdi” pitch of C=256, presented Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and African American Spirituals.
Mrs. LaRouche wrote the following:
“At the close of 2017, I proposed that 2018 should be the year that mankind would finally end geopolitics, and seek a new basis for relations among nations, worthy of human dignity. Of course, this goal, and the necessary eradication of poverty that it would require, was also the repeatedly stated mission of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In 1968 both of them were brutally assassinated, but rather than rise to the challenge posed by that tragedy, people on both sides of the Atlantic chose to accommodate themselves to it, and we have tasted, over the last fifty years, the bitter fruit of that accommodation. We now suffer a culture of violence and despair, and if we were to keep our noses buried in popular news and entertainment of the day, we might give up altogether.
“So, when I proposed that the year 2018 would begin a new era—a new paradigm for mankind—this was met with great skepticism by many of my European and American colleagues. What the skeptics had not considered is that since 2013, over 100 nations have joined with China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative to increase connectivity and collaboration among nations, through building modern infrastructure and transportation corridors, with the objective that by 2050, poverty should be eliminated from the planet. This new dynamic, of optimism about the future, is sweeping the globe, and only in the last days, have we seen promising developments of a U.S.-North Korea summit, hopefully to occur in the week following this concert, India-China talks and shared commitment to stabilize Afghanistan through reconstruction, and, perhaps most significantly a potential U.S.-Russia summit, which could begin to solve the dangerous crises in Ukraine and Syria.
“We are therefore at what has been called a ‘Sternstunde der Menschheit’ (literally a ‘stellar moment for mankind’) where our actions, at this time, will determine the future, or lack thereof, for generations to come. Of the bloody French Revolution, the poet Friedrich Schiller wrote, ‘A great moment has found a little people.’ Your participation in this performance of Bach, Beethoven and the African-American Spirituals, whether as artist, or audience, gives the world hope that this great moment might find an inspired people who will join me, and the Schiller Institute in acting to ensure that this moment is not missed.”
