Some pretty interesting revelations and insight from people who are more than likely “in-the-know,” so to speak, about the soap opera that is the North Korean nuclear crisis.
The fun began with former U.S. ambassador to Korea Donald Gregg’s and journalist/professor Don Oberdorfer’s op-ed to the WaPo calling on the Bush administration to seize the moment presented by Kim Jong-il’s recent comments to South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. The piece also revealed that Kim gave the pair a personal message for President Bush when they visited the DPRK in October 2002:
As we well know, this is not the first time that Kim has sought engagement rather than hostility with President Bush, whom he discussed in surprisingly positive terms last Friday. During a visit we made to Pyongyang in November 2002 following a nuclear-related trip by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, we were given a written personal message from Kim to Bush declaring: “If the United States recognizes our sovereignty and assures non-aggression, it is our view that we should be able to find a way to resolve the nuclear issue in compliance with the demands of a new century.” Further, he declared, “If the United States makes a bold decision, we will respond accordingly.”
We took the message to senior officials at the White House and State Department and urged the administration to follow up on Kim’s initiative, which we have not made public until now. Then deep in secret planning and a campaign of public persuasion for the invasion of Iraq, the administration spurned engagement with North Korea. Kim moved within weeks to expel the inspectors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and reopen the plutonium-producing facilities that had been shut down since 1994 under an agreement negotiated with the Clinton administration.
Don Oberdorfer talked more about what went down in 2002 to the Chosun Ilbo. He also expanded on why he and Gregg chose this moment to reveal the results of their 2002 trip to Pyongyang:
Oberdorfer said he made the facts public now in hopes that Bush will take seriously the positive signals sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young last week, and look at them as an opportunity to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Together with former U.S. ambassador to Korea Donald Gregg, who was with him during the visit, Oberdorfer made the message public in the June 22 edition of the Washington Post.
Oberdorfer talked with Dong-A Ilbo, too.
Meanwhile, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly wrote an op-ed to the Japan Times in which he said the door was open to resolving the nuclear issue, if the North Korean would just make a strategic decision:
There is no country in Asia, indeed in the world, that behaves like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Since its founding more than a half century ago, the DPRK has pursued a different course, always troubling. For 13-15 years it has been the very center of Northeast Asian tensions.
This path has been one of uninterrupted hardship for most of North Korea’s people, with an exceptional loss of life, to starvation. Now, as several times before, nuclear weapons are at the center of these tensions. No one knows how this situation will play out and there are serious dangers.
But these tensions can be eased at any time. DPRK sovereignty is recognized and if it turns not just part way, but completely and transparently from its nuclear weapons policy, it can have solid security assurances. Indeed, many countries would hasten to provide aid and support to the DPRK’s participation in the global system.
So far, the DPRK chooses not to ease these tensions. It will negotiate but apparently only about negotiations — not about the central issue that would diminish tensions.
The good Mr. Kelly also sat for an interview with Ye Olde Chosun — read that while you’re at it.
10 Comments
I might comment with strong language a good bit, but it is usually banter. This time, I mean it. I’m tired of the crap.
“As we well know, this is not the first time that Kim has sought engagement rather than hostility with President Bush, whom he discussed in surprisingly positive terms last Friday.”
Heaping piles of bullshit.
Why are so many of the people in the know so freaking stupid?
North Korea could change it’s situation virtually overnight. But why do these guys point the finger in the other direction?
If North Korean wanted to feed its people and help them, it could allow not so friendly to America-NGOs go around the country, but instead, we see these NGOs packing up and leaving.
Why? Do I need well known Korean experts to tell me Doctor’s Without Borders “just needs to take Pyongyang’s opening and end their hostility to the regime”?
North Korea could have set up permanent family reunion sites anytime since 1998. How much further up North Korea’s ass does SK have to shove itself before “Kim Jong Il recognizes the South’s non-hostility”? What other freaking “windows of opportunity” does South Korea have to jump through to convince Pyongyang “of their good intentions?”
Mail service, humanitarian assistance, phone links to seperated families, allowing Mt. Kumgang tourists to mix and mingle with regular North Koreas……….how many more mundane things do we have to lay out in a list……things North Korea could have done at any moment with very little effort……..to show that North Korea is NOT
“Indeed, many countries would hasten to provide aid and support to the DPRK?€™s participation in the global system.”
This is the fact. This is part of the fundamental sitaution I don’t understand everyone can’t seem to see.
“But these tensions can be eased at any time.”
This is the second part.
We are not dealing with a situation that “only the US is stopping North Korea from becoming an open, democratic, free society with its borders open to one and all.”
So why do people who get editorials published in the Washington Post seem so hell bent on putting that message out?
North Korea could have put an end to its suffering long ago….
What is constantly overlooked in the press, I think, is the cult aspect of Kim’s regime. He’s not gonna engage - he can’t. That’s why the workers at Keumgangsan are ethic Korea Chinese, and the proposed (now dead) Shineuju SEZ was to have a wall around it, cutting it off from the population. He has to keep the information out. He can give up nukes and still do this, but he will never, really, try to enter the ‘global’ community.
Kelly is soooo right that all we can talk about is when talks might start. I think Kim is waiting out the Bush administration.
Nothing will change in NK until Kim dies. There may be some talks, maybe even a deal; but I won?€™t be fooled. Nothing substantial will change until Kim croaks.
That?€™s why I think all the Six Party Talks excitement is a bunch of hoo-ha. But like a moth to a flame?€?
I’m amazed at how often others seem to be able to find some way to always blame Bush for the stand-off. At the same time, maybe there is some possible opening here for the administration. Could they pursue something via the NY or some other channel?
At least it’s something, though whether any deal would ever amount to more than a scrap of used toilet paper is still pretty unlikely. It also is most likely just some kind of PR stunt by the little runt KJI himself, to get everybody’s hopes up, just to have them dashed once again, after we’ve shipped millions more in aid.
The Carnival Of Revolutions.
Welcome to the Carnival of Revolutions! In this time, in our time, we’re witnessing history unfolding every day, a spontaneous explosion of political activity breaking out around the world. We’ve seen it in Ukraine. We’ve seen it in Lebanon. But…
compare diet pills
You are invited to check some relevant pages about best diet pills
apostar jugar paginas web
You are invited to check out some relevant pages dedicated to pai gow poker pagina web
fubballwettkurse
Take your time to check some information about pirates paradise
tamiflu uk
You are invited to take a look at some relevant information in the field of tamiflu capsules
canadian money exchange rate
In your free time, visit the sites in the field of global forex trading