Former President and Nobel Peace Prize buyer winner Kim Dae-jung is still off in La-la Land, and he’s apparently brought friends with him. Courtesy the Korea Times:
Former President Kim Dae-jung urged the United States and North Korea to settle the nuclear dispute through mutual concessions in a speech on Monday.
“North Korea should give up its nuclear program completely and undergo thorough verification, while at the same time, the United States should guarantee North Korea’s security and its advancement into the international community,” he said at the launching session of the East Asia Forum.
How the international community would convince North Korea, a nation which won’t even allow relief agencies unhindered access in the country, to undergo “thorough verification,” DJ didn’t say.
The six-party talks will provide further support for peace on the Korean peninsula, Kim said. He stressed the importance of cooperation between East Asian countries.
“East Asian countries should realize that without peace on the Korean peninsula, there will be no stable development of East Asia,” the former president said.
True enough, but there has been peace on the peninsula for 53 years, and plenty of development in East Asia. So why do we have to buy the Norks off?
His call for peace was echoed by Mahathir bin Mohamad, former Malaysian prime minister, who made tacit reference to the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
“A small country may be invaded and occupied and the government forced to surrender, but the people may not surrender,” Mahathir said. “In the end, the superpower will have gained nothing; it will lose, in fact, as it did in Vietnam.”
“Preemptive attacks simply means open aggression. It must be condemned and proscribed,” he said in his speech.
Yo, Mohamad, who’s talking about invading North Korea? And not to be picky, because I know what you mean, but the US did not invade and force the South Vietnamese government to surrender during that bitter conflict - that happened when North Vietnamese forces overran Saigon in 1975. But hey, at least you didn’t blame the Jews for the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Mahathir added East Asia would do well to emulate the French and the Germans, who overcame their bitter history of confrontation to build a formidable relationship.
“We should therefore focus instead on economic cooperation between the East Asian countries. It should be done with an open mind,” he also said.
“Open mind” meaning, “without regard for human rights and democracy, two concepts of which, as the whole world knows, I am not particularly fond.” Mahathir also failed to mention how East Asia could emulate the European model when its largest market - China - is run by authoritarian Communists while Japan and South Korea pursue economic policies that would give boners to 17th century mercantilists.
But hey, at least he didn’t blame the Jews.
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Well, Howard Dean’s already convinced.
“Mr Dean, referring to the nuclear weapons crisis in North Korea, said he would abandon Mr Bush’s stance of refusing to engage directly with the country’s leadership and would offer a “package deal” to Pyongyang that would include economic aid, energy assistance and a “non-aggression pact” in return for an undertaking that it would dismantle its nuclear programme.”
Bilateral talks and another deal with the DPRK, this time giving them their non-aggression pact along with energy and food. I wonder how certain Democratic Korean bloggers will take it if he becomes the nominee.
And with the new committment by Algeria and South Korea to enhance security relations, I guess the US can leave….