Jeffrey Lewis - The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States

US and South Korean officials did, of course, visit the headquarters: The US Department of Defense released a pair of images from Admiral Cecil Haney’s visit to the ROK Army Missile Command headquarters on June 23, 2015.

“The issues on the rules of engagement… should be discussed”: Yi Whan-woo, “Rules of Engagement at JSA in Dispute,” Korea Times, November 16, 2017.

Sometimes surprised wedding-goers even had an unscheduled appearance by the president: Jaime A. Cardenas, “Trump Crashes Nashville Socialite’s Wedding at Mar-a-Lago,” USA Today, February 13, 2017.

Over the years, these shelters had been repurposed to serve as storage and, for a time, as an office for Trump’s butler: Alex Leary, “Greeting from Mar-a-Lago: Donald Trump’s Presidential Paradise,” Tampa Bay Times, November 25, 2016.

“Pompeo kept feeding Trump assessments”: This quotation is based on the assessment of “several officials familiar with [White House] discussions” as described by Matt Spetalnick, Arshad Mohammed, and Hyonhee Shin, “’He’s Such a Dreamer’: Skepticism Dogs US Envoy’s North Korean Peace Efforts,” Reuters, November 3, 2017.

“spends that time in his [executive] residence, watching TV, making phone calls and tweeting”: Anonymous “officials,” as described by Jonathan Swan, “Trump’s Secret, Shrinking Schedule,” Axios, January 7, 2018.

“Once he goes upstairs [to the residence], there’s no managing him”: An anonymous “adviser,” as quoted in Ashley Parker and Robert Costa, “‘Everyone Tunes In’: Inside Trump’s Obsession with Cable TV,” Washington Post, April 23, 2017.

“But if he wants to watch [television], it’s not like we can say, ‘Oh, the TV doesn’t work’”: Anonymous official, as quoted in Matthew Nussbaum, Josh Dawsey, Darren Samuelsohn, and Tara Palmeri, “West Wing Aides Fearful of Directly Attacking Comey,” Politico, June 7, 2017.

In one case, a golf club member invited a New York Times reporter: Michael S. Schmidt, “Our Reporter Mike Schmidt on His Golf Club Interview with President Trump,” New York Times, December 29, 2017.

Of particular interest was a list of late-night phone calls: Dan Amira, “Blogger Who Allegedly Slept with Female Candidate Releases the Texts,” New York, May 26, 2010.

Once in office, even uglier rumors about Haley began to spread: Wolff only hints at the possibility of an affair in Fire and Fury (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2018, 305–306), although he drew attention to suggestive passages in a 2018 television interview with Bill Maher.

Trump had famously posed as his own publicist to spread rumors to gossip columnists: Marc Fisher and Will Hobson, “Donald Trump Masqueraded as Publicist to Brag about Himself,” Washington Post, May 13, 2016.

Haley called him “Lemon” : This detail and others are drawn from a profile of Lerner by Kambiz Foroohar, “Haley’s UN Brinkmanship Comes with Advice by Long-Time Pollster,” Bloomberg, September 11, 2017.

“there are no dissidents in China”: Shi Jiangtao, “Why Ma Zhaoxu, China’s New Man at the United Nations, Signals Greater Ambition on Global Stage,” South China Morning Post, January 21, 2018.

For instance, Hillary Clinton has often told a story: Laura Blumenfeld, “For State Department Officers Directing Calls, Adrenaline Always on the Line,” Washington Post, July 14, 2010.

Madeleine Albright needed to reach a diplomat who was out of contact at a football game: Daniel Stone, “Hillary Clinton’s State Department Nerve Center: Inside the Other Situation Room,” Daily Beast, May 19, 2011.

the State Department had used the New York channel before: Josh Rogin, “Inside the ‘New York Channel’ between the United States and North Korea,” Washington Post, August 11, 2017.

“pressure, compete with, and outmaneuver” US adversaries: Nahal Toosi, “Leaked Memo Schooled Tillerson on Human Rights,” Politico, December 19, 2017.

Hook had stayed on: “For now, however, another top Tillerson aide, Brian Hook, appears to be staying in place. Hook has also spurred resentment in Foggy Bottom for using the division under his control, the Policy Planning Staff, to effectively take over many decisions and tasks traditionally left to the department’s regional and functional bureaus.” Nahal Toosi, “Top Tillerson Aides Resign amid State Department Shuffle,” Politico, March 14, 2018.

“Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets”: Noah Bierman, “Trump’s Chief of Staff: ‘I Do Not Follow the Tweets,’” Los Angeles Times, November 12, 2017.

“pushing the tweets in the right direction”: Josh Dawsey, “John Kelly’s Big Challenge: Controlling the Tweeter in Chief,” Politico, August 4, 2017.

In fact, she had merely extinguished a trash fire: Max Fisher, “North Korean ‘Traffic Girl’ May Have Won Military Award for Saving Kim Jong Un Poster,” Washington Post, May 9, 2013.

the US Department of Defense took more than an hour to activate its alternate command center at Site R: Rick Newman and Patrick Creed, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 2008), 174.

According to Ahmed El-Noamany: Chad O’Carroll, “Inside North Korea’s Cell Network: Ex-Koryolink Technical Director Reveals All,” NK News, August 20, 2015.

US and United Nations forces captured thousands of hours of secret recordings of meetings, phone calls, and conferences: This section is modeled on the discussion found in David D. Palkki, Kevin M. Woods, and Mark Stout, The Saddam Tapes: The Inner Workings of a Tyrant’s Regime, 1978–2001 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

“plotting bastards”: I have chosen a Korean equivalent of “conspiring bastards”—the term that Saddam used to describe the United States. See Hal Brands and David Palkki, “‘Conspiring Bastards’: Saddam Hussein’s Strategic View of the United States,” Diplomatic History 36, no. 3 (June 2012): 625–659.

Images of Jang being led away: “Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed,” Korean Central News Agency, December 13, 2013.

The North Koreans simply said that Jang had been shot: Alistair Bunkall, “North Korea: Kim Jong-Un Official Speaks,” Sky News, January 30, 2014.

when North Korean agents rubbed a nerve agent in his face at the Kuala Lumpur airport: Kyle Swenson, “A Gruesome North Korean Murder Plot: Trial Sheds New Light on Assassination of Kim Jong Un’s Brother,” Washington Post, October 17, 2017.

North Korean agents continued to make attempts on the lives of his children: Lee Young-Jong and Lee Sung-Eun, “China Arrests Would-be Assassins of Kim Han-sol,” JoongAng Ilbo, November 1, 2017.

“There’s a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done”: Zachary Cohen, “CIA: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Isn’t Crazy,” CNN, October 6, 2017.

In October 2017, for example, North Korea alleged that it had discovered a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un: “In May this year, a group of heinous terrorists who infiltrated into our country on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US and the South Korean puppet Intelligence Service with the purpose of carrying out a state-sponsored terrorism against our supreme headquarters using biological and chemical substance were caught and exposed.” “DPRK Representative on Principled Stand of DPRK on Terrorism,” Korean Central News Agency, October 6, 2017.