According to pollster World Public Opinion.org, a solid majority of Americans would support security guarantees and/or increased aid to North Korea in return for Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear program, reports Yonhap:
The respondents were told that North Korea attached certain conditions to giving up its nuclear weapons, two key demands being a security guarantee and increased food by the U.S. When asked if the U.S. should be willing to agree to the conditions, 71 percent said yes to the security guarantee that would declare neither the U.S. nor North Korea will attack each other.
Partisan distinction showed somewhat, with 61 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats answering in favor of the security assurance.
On whether the U.S. should be willing to increase food aid to Pyongyang, 58 percent said yes. Forth-eight percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats answered the same.
Hey, maybe this guy is right after all.
6 Comments
Hey, the Americans are coming around. Is it because they can’t kick anyone’s asses anymore?
So how is American public opinions differ from Roh’s vision of appeasing North Korea?
But can the North Koreans eat red herrings? Because that’s exactly what these two survey questions were, especially the food aid one.
These security guarantees and other good things are on offer in the 9/19 agreement that North Korea initialed, then reneged, then walked away from, then made a mockery of with its tests.
Hardly dumb sentiment.
What the heck is a “security guarantee” anyway? it’s just as nebulous as CVID. So why not trade one castle in the sky for another?
American people are nice enough to never use food as a weapon anyway. So why not give food anyway under the guise of a deal? If we don’t do it, China and ROK will. Earn some political capital with China and ROK.
Do you really want Bolton to call KJI an a&*hole for few more years and accomplish nothing? Threatening KJI has done little more than to see a nuclear rumble in DPRK. It’s time to be more subtle and smile at KJI and send in radios to DPRK subtly and subversively. Putting on obvious set of pressure on KJI might make you feel good, because you are “punishing” an evil doer, but it’s better to drag this out quitely until KJI dies.
Our de facto/only real strategy at this point is regime change. It’s in our best interest for Bush to keep saying that it’s not.
cm from Canada is dead right on the money.
This approach is absolutely no different than Roh Moo Hyun’s policy in the end.
As a pro George W. Bush, supporter, I see this as GWB caving in.
It’s essentially Kim Jong Il’s victory.
GWB: if we sanction them pretty tight, there’s no way they can make one working.
–this was the position and the correct position before North Korea made one work.
Kim Jong Il learned something while he was occupying office. Economics. With limited resources, he could afford to have more people starving, more people dying, more people fleeing the country. Tightly funneling resources from trade/aid from China, trade/aid from South Korea, he was able to put together enough to keep the country pitch dark at night, without heat anywhere except maybe where he lives, and manage to sell enough illicit drugs and print enough fake dollars to finance this project.
In the end, George W. Bush and the Americans were short changed partially and significantly by the South Koreans and 386 generation of liberal politicians.
Beware of liberal politicians. In America, and in South Korea, they are up to no good. They are idiots. They will raise your taxes. And ruin your country by trying out “fresh” ideas. Just take a look a France. Lovely race riots of late.
How many of those polled even knew where NK is, let alone knew of its history of flouting every international agreement it ever signed?