Trump bragged that the U.S. is 'getting the remains' of American soldiers back from North Korea — but those efforts have in fact been suspended.
Trump chose to use Memorial Day as an opportunity to lie about his administration's efforts to retrieve the remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War.
Trump spoke on Monday morning at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, during which he boasted about his administration's relations with North Korea and praised the regime's dictator.
"We, as you know, are getting the remains — continuing to get the remains — a lot of good things are happening," Trump claimed, referring to the remains of fallen soldiers.
In reality, however, the process of retrieving those remains from North Korea has been halted for nearly three months.
"Our effort to communicate with the Korean People’s Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operation for 2019 has been suspended," the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency announced in a statement on May 8. "We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2019."
The Pentagon said it has not communicated with the North Korean government about transferring remains since Trump's failed summit with North Korea in Hanoi in February.
The Associated Press described the suspended efforts as "a new sign of troubled relations with North Korea." Only three service members have been identified from the remains previously turned over by North Korea.
In addition to lying about the remains of dead soldiers, Trump's comments were accompanied by over-the-top praise for North Korea and its dictator despite the thuggish regime continuing to test missiles and threaten the world.
"I think that Kim Jong Un — or Chairman Kim, as some people say — is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically," Trump said, ignoring the fact that North Korea remains a global pariah because of its human rights abuses and belligerence. "[Kim] believes, like I do, that North Korea has tremendous economic potential, like perhaps few other developing nations."
Trump further claimed that Kim is "a very smart man, he gets it well," and insisted that North Korea will not pursue nuclear weapons — even though surveillance and reports from U.S. intelligence agencies have indicated that the country continues to pursue dangerous weapons of mass destruction.
Trump wanted so badly to praise a dictator that even on Memorial Day, he was willing to give a pass to a dangerous regime on returning the remains of America's fallen.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
