But I must admit to a growing irritation with imputations of requirements to the wrong entity. For instance, this White House press release on the recent meeting between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Abe:
They also reaffirmed that North Korea needs to abandon all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
I realize it’s possible to suggest there’s an unwritten addition to the sentence, in order to gain our approval and buy-in to the agreement. But I remain irritated, as such assumptions are at least open, if not prone, to error. I’d much rather see a direct declarative:
The President and the Prime Minister require North Korea abandon all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs before we can be signatories to any agreement concerning the Korean Peninsula.
It properly denotes who’s driving this requirement and, stylistically, is simply superior.
But maybe I’m just crabby.
