'Preserve rule of law': Obama's inauguration letter to Trump revealed

Former president left letter for Trump in which he urged his successor to uphold the rule of law and separation of powers

Barack Obama warned Donald Trump to uphold the rule of law and not undermine the “international order” in a newly revealed letter from the 44th US president to his successor.

The former president gave Trump three key pieces of advice in a letter he left in the Oval Office when he departed the White House. The letter was published on Sunday by CNN.

“We’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune,” Obama told his successor. “Not everyone is so lucky. It’s up to us to do everything we can [to] build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard.”

Turning to international relations, Obama told Trump, who had embraced isolationism throughout his campaign: “American leadership in this world really is indispensable.”

He added: “It’s up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.”

Thirdly, Obama urged his successor to protect “those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties – that our forebears fought and bled for”.

“Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them,” Obama wrote in the letter.

In January, Trump called the letter “beautiful” and said he would cherish it, adding: “We won’t even tell the press what’s in that letter.”

The relationship between the two presidents has grown increasingly fractious after an initial attempt to build bridges on both sides quickly collapsed.

Obama invited his successor to the White House a few days after the election, telling Trump: “We now are going to do everything we can to help you succeed, because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.”

Trump, who seemed somewhat daunted at the meeting, said he had “great respect” for the president he had excoriated on the campaign trail, and called Obama a “very good man”.

“The conversations have been cordial,” Obama said in January, following news the two had had a handful of phone calls. “He has been open to suggestions, and the main thing that I’ve tried to transmit is that there’s a difference between governing and campaigning.”

When the New Yorker’s David Remnick asked Obama how that White House meeting with Trump had gone, however, the former president “smiled thinly, and said, ‘I think I can’t characterise it without...’ Then he stopped himself and said that he would tell me ‘at some point over a beer – off the record’.”

Within days of Trump’s inauguration, Obama had broken his silence to criticise his successor for the first time, with a spokesman responding to Trump’s first attempt at a travel ban by saying: “The president [Obama] fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”

Their relationship was strained further when Trump claimed in March that Obama had been tapping his phones during the election campaign. The president has never offered any evidence for the tweeted claim, and this week his own Justice Department stated in a court filing that its national security division and the FBI “confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets”.

More recently, Obama responded to Trump’s heavily criticised remarks equating neo-Nazis with the protesters opposing them in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a series of tweets quoting Nelson Mandela. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion,” the former president posted.

By contrast, Trump continues to use social media to needle his predecessor, last month retweeting an allegedly antisemitic supporter’s set of images entitled “The best eclipse ever!” which showed Trump’s face gradually obscuring that of Obama.

The letter from Obama is not the only clue we have about advice he has given his successor. The New York Times reported in March that Obama had told Trump that North Korea would be the biggest challenge he would face – something that seems all the more prescient following this weekend’s apparent test of a powerful hydrogen bomb that can be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile. 

It is something of a tradition for a departing president to leave a missive for the person taking over from him. 

George W Bush’s letter to Obama was addressed: “To #44, from #43.” George Bush Sr’s wished Bill Clinton well, and it went viral during last year’s election campaign. “Your success now is our country’s success,” Bush wrote. “I am rooting hard for you.”

Ronald Reagan simply told his former vice-president Bush: “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.”

Obama’s letter to Trump in full

Dear Mr President

Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.

This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don’t know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. Still, let me offer a few reflections from the past 8 years.

First, we’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune. Not everyone is so lucky. It’s up to us to do everything we can [to] build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard.

Second, American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It’s up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.

Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions -- like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties -- that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.

And finally, take time, in the rush of events and responsibilities, for friends and family. They’ll get you through the inevitable rough patches.

Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.

Good luck and Godspeed,

BO

North Korea Nuclear Test Puts Pressure on China and Undercuts Xi

BEIJING — It was supposed to be Xi Jinping’s moment to bask in global prestige, as the Chinese president hosted the leaders of some of the world’s most dynamic economies at a summit meeting just weeks before a Communist Party leadership conference.

But just hours before Mr. Xi was set to address the carefully choreographed meeting on Sunday, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, detonated his sixth nuclear bomb.

Mr. Kim has timed his nuclear tests and missile launches with exquisite precision, apparently trying to create maximum embarrassment for China. And on Sunday, a gathering in southeast China of leaders from Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa, members of the so-called BRICS group, was immediately overshadowed by news of the test, which shook dwellings in China and revived fears of nuclear contamination in the country’s northeast region.

This is not the first time Mr. Kim has chosen a provocative moment to flaunt his country’s weapons. In May, he launched a ballistic missile hours before Mr. Xi spoke at a gathering of world leaders in Beijing assembled to discuss China’s signature trillion dollar One Belt, One Road project.

The confluence of North Korea’s nuclear testing and Mr. Xi’s important public appearances is not a coincidence, analysts said. It is intended to show that Mr. Kim, the leader of a small, rogue neighboring state, can diminish Mr. Xi’s power and prestige as president of China, they said. In fact, some analysts contended that the latest test may have been primarily aimed at pressuring Mr. Xi, not President Trump.

China always aims for domestic calm in the period leading up to the secretive congress, and so it is unlikely to do anything before Oct. 19, the start of the conclave, Mr. Zhao said.

The biggest concern for China’s leadership is the possibility of North Korea turning on China, the country’s only ally. “If cornered, North Korea could take military action against China, given the relationship has reached a historic low,” Mr. Zhao said.

China supplies more than 80 percent of the North’s crude oil, and suspending delivery would be the ultimate economic sanction, more far-reaching than those imposed, with China’s support, by the United Nations.

Even The Global Times, the nationalist, state-run newspaper, said several months ago that China should consider cutting off its oil supplies to North Korea if Mr. Kim detonated a sixth nuclear bomb. But with the party congress looming, the paper modified its position Sunday.

“The origin of the North Korean nuclear issue is the sense of uncertainty that is generated by the military actions of the U.S./South Korea military alliance,” the paper said. “China should not be at the front of this sharp and complicated situation.”

There were also some doubts whether severing oil supplies would make much a huge difference to the North Korean regime. “The economic effects will be substantial but not regime crippling,” said Mr. Hayes of the Nautilus Institute, which specializes in the North’s energy needs.

The hardships, he said, would be most felt by ordinary people, with less food getting to market and fewer people able to travel between cities in buses.

The North’s army has oil stockpiles for routine nonwartime use for at least a year, Mr. Hayes said. “They can last for about a month before they run out of fuel in wartime, at best; likely much earlier,” he said.

Another major concern for the Chinese government is the fears of residentsin the northeast of the country about nuclear contamination from North Korea’s test site at Punggye-ri, not far from the Chinese border.

Many residents in Yanji in Jilin Province, which borders the North, said they felt their apartments shake after the test. Some posted photos of stocks of food and drinks shattered on the floors of a grocery store. At first residents believed the cause was an earthquake, they said, and only later in the day heard the news from state-run media that North Korea had detonated a nuclear bomb.

“I was in my study when the earthquake began,” said Sun Xingjie, an assistant professor at Jilin University in Changchun about 350 miles from the North Korean test site. Mr. Sun said he checked with friends on social media, and they determined from the location and the depth of the explosion that it was a nuclear test.

Even though there is no evidence of any contamination from the test reaching China, it is a worry of residents, Mr. Sun said.

“We are at the border region, so we have a sense of fear about leakage from the nuclear test,” he said.

“Kim knows that Xi has the real power to affect the calculus in Washington,” said Peter Hayes, the director of the Nautilus Institute, a research group that specializes in North Korea. “He’s putting pressure on China to say to Trump: ‘You have to sit down with Kim Jong-un.’”

What Mr. Kim wants most, Mr. Hayes said, is talks with Washington that the North Korean leader hopes will result in a deal to reduce American troops in South Korea and leave him with nuclear weapons. And in Mr. Kim’s calculation, China has the influence to make that negotiation happen.

While some Chinese analysts say North Korea should be made to pay a price for its contempt of China, the North’s ally and major trading partner, they were not optimistic that Sunday’s test would change Mr. Xi’s determination to remain above the fray and not get his hands sullied trying to force Mr. Kim to change his ways.

Even the North’s claim that the weapon detonated was a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile would probably not sway Mr. Xi, they said.

“This sixth nuclear test should force China to do something radical; this will be a political test,” said Cheng Xiaohe, a nuclear expert at Renmin University. “But the mood is not moving that way.”

China’s Foreign Ministry did express “strong condemnation” of the test. But despite the North’s repeated incitements, the Chinese leadership is likely to stick to its position that a nuclear-armed North Korea is less dangerous to China than the possibility of a political collapse in the North, Mr. Cheng said. That could result in a unified Korean Peninsula under the control of the United States and its ally, South Korea.

China fears such an outcome if it uses its greatest economic leverage: cutting off the crude oil supplies that keep the North’s rudimentary economy running.

“Cutting off oil supplies could severely impact North Korean industries and undermine the regime’s stability, a solution which China and Russian have serious qualms about,” said Zhao Tong, a fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

China has put forward a proposal that hinges on North Korea stopping its nuclear testing in exchange for an end to American military exercises around the Korean Peninsula.

But Mr. Xi is consumed at the moment with domestic matters, Chinese analysts said. The political machinations surrounding the Communist Party’s National Congress that will convene in Beijing in mid-October to select new members of the ruling elite are at the top of his agenda. Mr. Xi will be awarded his second five-year term at the meeting.

South Korea conducts live-fire exercises in response to North's nuclear test

The combined drill, carried out by the South Korean army and air force and intended to simulate a strike on North Korea's nuclear test site, involved surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and F-15K fighter jets hitting targets off the east coast of South Korea, according to a statement form the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

What happened:

-- North Korea said it successfully conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb Sunday -- the country's sixth nuclear test.

-- The explosion created a magnitude-6.3 tremor, making it the most powerful weapon Pyongyang has ever tested.

-- Hours before the test, North Korean state media released pictures of the country's leader, Kim Jong Un inspecting what it claimed was a nuclear warhead being placed inside a missile

Latest developments:

-- US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is drafting tough sanctions against North Korea, adding "this isn't the time for just talk."

-- As US President Donald Trump was leaving a church service for Hurricane Harvey victims, he was asked by a reporter if the United States would attack North Korea. "We'll see," Trump responded.

-- US Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters in front of the White House that any threat to the United States, its allies or its territories "will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming." He added: "Kim Jong Un should take heed of the United Nations Security Council's unified voice. All members unanimously agreed on the threat North Korea poses and they remain unanimous in their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula ... We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so."

-- Trump took to Twitter after the announcement and said North Korea's "words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States." He added that Pyongyang has become a "great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success"; warned South Korea their "talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work"; and said Washington is considering "stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea."

-- Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is hosting an international financial summit, said in an opening ceremony speech that "incessant conflicts in some parts of the world and hotspot issues are posing challenges to world peace," according to a transcript published by Chinese state media.

-- Japanese Prime Minister said the threat against his country is now "more grave and imminent"; South Korean President Moon Jae-in called it an absurd strategic mistake."

Emergency session

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the test was "profoundly destabilizing for regional security," and the UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the issue for Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

The Security Council also met last week after North Korea shot a missile that overflew the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Though the only thing to come from that meeting was a strongly-worded statement, the Security Council did unanimously pass a new round of sanctions in early August. Those are meant to choke off North Korea's ability to bring in revenue across the globe.

"For months North Korea refrained from conducting a nuclear test and from launching missiles over Japan," said David Wright, the co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program. "It now seems to have decided to end that restraint."

It's unclear if a new round of sanctions is in the works, but Japan and South Korea have both signaled they are in favor of applying more diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang.

However, a noticeable divide has emerged between Washington and Seoul when it comes to how exactly the world should respond to North Korea's latest move.

After President Trump's tweet on South Korean appeasement, the South Korean President's office said in a statement that it will "pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through peace with our allies."

The country's current President Moon Jae-in, who was elected in May, is seen as more open to dialogue than his hawkish predecessor.

China, long viewed as North Korea's only real regional ally, also condemned the test.

"We strongly urge (the) North Korea side to face up to the firm will of the international community on the denuclearization of the peninsula, abide by relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, stop taking wrong actions that exacerbate the situation and are not in its own interest, and return to the track of resolving the issue through dialogue," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

'Perfect success'

North Korea's test came hours after state-run media released images of leader Kim Jong Un inspecting what it said was a hydrogen bomb ready to to top an ICBM, which the country would need to deliver a nuclear warhead to far-away locations.

State news anchor Ri Chun Hee hailed the test as a "perfect success" and the final step in attaining a "state nuclear force," which North Korea sees as crucial in order deter any adversaries from invasion or attempting regime change.

North Korean state media claims Kim Jong Un watched a hydrogen bomb being loaded onto an ICBM.

Analysts have said for months that another nuclear test was likely on the way, with satellite imagery revealing that a tunnel had been dug earlier this year.

And the country has for years worked on miniaturizing a nuclear warhead so it can be fitted atop a long-range missile and survive the heat-intensive process of re-entering the earth's atmosphere.

North Korea claimed the device tested Sunday was a hydrogen bomb, a much more powerful type of nuclear weapon that uses fusion instead of fission to increase the blast yield, or destructive power. It is also known as a thermonuclear bomb.

While it's nearly impossible to verify the North Korean claim that the weapon was small enough to be put on a missile -- short of having independent experts examine the test -- the tremors that followed the blast can help scientists calculate how powerful the explosion was. Other countries will also take air samples to measure radiation levels, which will also offer important details.

NORSAR, a Norway-based group that monitors nuclear tests, estimated it had an explosive yield of 120 kilotons -- which means the power of 120,000 tons of TNT.

South Korean officials gave a more modest estimate of 50 kilotons.

To put that in context, the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 -- which instantly killed 80,000 people -- created a yield of 15 tons.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as it's officially known, claimed it set off a hydrogen bomb in its fifth nuclear test on September 9 of last year. That date is the country's Foundation Day holiday.

The blast triggered a 5.3-magnitude seismological event; which said the data showed the detonation was more likely a boosted fission weapon.

Sanctions

Trump's administration is now pursuing what it calls a strategy of "peaceful pressure" to get North Korea to bring its nuclear weapons program to the negotiating table.

North Korea itself has long said it is open to dialogue, but will not abandon its nuclear aspirations unless the United States abandons what Pyongyang considers a "hostile policy" against it.

Sanctions have long been a tactic the international community has employed to punish and isolate Pyongyang, but in many ways they have failed. The Kim regime developed its weapons and nuclear program despite the international measures designed to cripple the economy and which exacerbated periods of mass starvation.

The White House, meanwhile, has been accused of sending mixed messages on the issue and lacking a clear strategy. The President's tweets regularly suggest he is not interested in dialogue.

"The Trump administration has clearly prioritized North Korea. Not all of that attention has been helpful," said Adam Mount, a North Korea expert and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "The critical thing is now is that the United States does not cause more damage with its reaction than the test did itself."

North Korea nuclear test

South Korea’s media has called on Seoul to consider developing an independent nuclear deterrent, as concern grows over the strength of Washington’s commitment to its east Asian ally’s security following North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sunday.

The South hosts 28,500 US troops and falls under the US nuclear umbrella, but in return is banned from building its own nuclear weapons under a 1974 agreement with the US.
North Korean missile launches and yesterday’s test of what it claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb have triggered calls by conservative politicians for the South to develop a nuclear deterrent independent of the US. Support for the move is also rising among South Korean voters.

“As nuclear weapons are being churned out above our heads, we can’t always rely on the US nuclear umbrella and extended deterrence,” the mass-circulation Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial on Monday.

The US stationed atomic weapons in the South after the 1950-53 Korean War, but withdrew them in 1991 when North and South Korea jointly declared they would make the peninsula nuclear-free.

The editorial said that agreement no longer applied. “There is no reason for us to cling onto the declaration when it has come to mean the denuclearisation of South Korea, not the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” it said.