Oh Dear. We’ve Had Yet Another Scheduling FUBAR with North Korea.

North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un instructs his top agronomists in the fine points of potato horticulture last Saturday. He was supposed to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that day, but somehow their schedules got crossed up and Kim didn't make it.Yonhap News/Newscom via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Our relationship with North Korea is getting stronger all the time thanks to President Trump:

North Korean officials did not turn up to a Thursday meeting with the U.S. military about repatriating the remains of the war dead, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation. The two sides had been expected to meet at the Korean Peninsula’s demilitarized zone and discuss the return of U.S. troop remains from the 1950-1953 war — an arrangement that the State Department had announced after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang last Friday and Saturday.

….On Thursday, however, Department of Defense and United Nations Command officials were left waiting in the DMZ’s Joint Security Area. The expected North Korean officials never arrived, according to the official who requested anonymity as he was not permitted to talk publicly about the event. “We were ready,” the official said. “It just didn’t happen. They didn’t show.”

This is so unlike North Korea. Maybe Trump needs to pick up the phone and make a personal call to his friend Kim. Or send Dennis Rodman to straighten things out. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. Probably they were using Outlook and our guys were using Google Calendar and they failed to synchronize or something. It happens.

THIS IS BIG

A generous board member just chipped in a $50,000 digital matching gift, and we need your help to make the most of it. Any donation you make online from now until September 30 will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

In an all-important election season, we’re reaching millions of Americans with fearless, kickass, truth-telling reporting.

With your support going twice as far, we can lead the way these next 60 days in showing the corporate media how to cover the unique danger that Trump represents and not make the same mistakes they did in 2016 and 2020.

Please help with a gift of any amount if you can right now. And know that it will be doubled—and that we’ll be so grateful.

payment methods

THIS IS BIG

A generous board member just chipped in a $50,000 digital matching gift, and we need your help to make the most of it. Any donation you make online from now until September 30 will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

In an all-important election season, we’re reaching millions of Americans with fearless, kickass, truth-telling reporting.

With your support going twice as far, we can lead the way these next 60 days in showing the corporate media how to cover the unique danger that Trump represents and not make the same mistakes they did in 2016 and 2020.

Please help with a gift of any amount if you can right now. And know that it will be doubled—and that we’ll be so grateful.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate