Ralph Peters: N. Korea Backs Off Because Trump’s Getting Tough on Trade, Piracy with China

EXCERPT:

PETERS: "Yeah, I think this is intermission. North Korea is certainly not ready to give up its nuke and missile programs but they're going to be quiet for a while. And I think there are two factors. The obvious factor is, North Korea doesn’t know what to make of President Trump. They just don’t. He is not acting the way American presidents have in the past with, you know, reserve, etc. So, that spooks them. But the big event, the big event for the administration and our country this week that had indirect powerful bearing was President Trump signing the memorandum authorizing a preliminary investigation of Chinese intellectual property theft, of piracy, both kind they steal directly through espionage, or the kind they extort from U.S. companies trying to do business in China. That scared the Chinese. It really scared them, because stealing our ideas, our designs, our research, is instrumental, it’s critical to China’s economic progress. And they've been getting away with it for decades."