Hopefully, we will get a little more context for this (Chosun):
U.S. President George W. Bush has admitted to Washington’s failure to understand North Korea in dealing with a delay in the transfer of North Korea’s assets from a Macau bank, saying that the U.S. “screwed it up.”
No, the screwed up part is the State Department trying to get around the Treasury Department and US law in bending over to North Korean demands that they get the money through a US bank.
There is nothing preventing the North Koreans from getting their money. They only need to send a couple of goons with some briefcases. But no, they want to access to the US financial market. If they want that, fine; let them stop their counterfeiting, drug running and money laundering.
It is looking like the Bush administration and the boys and girls at State have lost all discipline and are desperately seeking out any kind of deal that would keep the region quite for a while. Of course that just means that the next administration will have to deal with the mess when the facade falls off. Yep, it’s Agreed Framework 2.0 (and unlike Bruce Cummings, I don’t mean that in a good way).
Meanwhile, in the “Gee, how is that regional balancer idea going in increasing South Korea’s influence in the region” department:
North Korea and the U.S. ignored a South Korean offer to help resolve a banking dispute that has bedeviled progress on Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament, the South’s president said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.
If the six party talks shifted to four-party talks, perhaps it won’t be the Japanese twitling their thumbs with the Russians.
16 Comments
Yes, unsurprisingly North Korea pulled yet anther fast one; it got what it asked for when BDA funds were unfrozen ~10 April, but then demanded use of the international banking system, and the U.S. gave in by asking Wachovia to launder North Korea’s dirty money.
Once this first step gets done – now almost seven weeks past the deadline for shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor – we’ll have the next issue, a full declaration of all nuclear programs, including the highly enriched uranium (HEU), or so Christopher Hill has insisted. It’s sure to cause another delay, or rather to be used by North Korea for that purpose.
It is not, however, the “Agreed Framework 2.0,” a description that just does not accurately describe the situation. The 13 February deal was a deal to make a deal rather than the package deal that the 1994 agreement was meant to be, and (for all the most significant parts-BDA funds are the exception) doles out rewards in phases and not without reciprocal action.
It would be highly ironic if another Clinton inherited this mess, but I’d rather avoid that irony along with the socialist influence in our government it would bring.
Are comments with one link going into moderation?
Just Askimet acting up. Sorry.
Bush don’t care about NK.
NK is not a threat to the US; NK doesn’t have missles that can reach CONUS with accurate guidance system. NK probably do not have technology to load nuclear bomb to the missile and detonate at the impact.
NK is a local thug and the US is not interested.
Bush only included NK as a member of evil axis, in order to show to the world that he is not singling out Islams.
Bush really does not care about KJI, BDA, six-party poop, or South Korea in general.
He has enough Iraq and Iran things to worry about. Hillary, Obama, Michael Moore, etc, as well.
If anything, rather than give KJI a dime, of give into another fake deal, I’d rather see Bush just ignore the North until his time runs out. While he quietly squeezes KJI’s nuts with banking sanctions and other measures that he might be able to accomplish without too much notice. He can’t attack and any deal is pure shite, so ignore and squeeze.
Compare the wording of the Chosun Ilbo
U.S. President George W. Bush has admitted to Washington’s failure to understand North Korea in dealing with a delay in the transfer of North Korea’s assets from a Macau bank, saying that the U.S. “screwed it up.”
to the wording of original Kyodo News Agency report:
U.S. President George W. Bush admitted during his talks in April with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the U.S. government failed to fully read North Korean actions over the recent banking impasse, saying Washington ‘’screwed it up,” sources close to the Japan-U.S. relation said Thursday.
Interesting paraphrase.
“…that would keep the region quite for a while…”
I think you meant to say “quiet”.
This article by Peggy Noonan in today’s (CONUS, Friday 1 June) WSJ opinionjournal.com (their open access website) articulates pretty well conservative (small c) disaffection with President Bush.
The article focuses on the current immigration bill rather than on administration policy towards Korea, but IMO her critique applies equally well to Bush administration Korea policy.
Bush seems to be stubborn when he should be flexible, and vice versa.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/.....=110010148
I’ve followed this issue kinda closely and it’s my understanding that the Treasury decision on BDA is an administrative ruling. That is to say, it can be revised or eliminated unilaterally by the Treasury department in response to a petition, if it affects the world financial system, or if the Treasury Department simply decides it wants to change it. It’s a descretionary decision by Treasury, not a law. And Wachovia (and the State Department)aren’t trying to evade the ruling. They’re waiting for administrative direction from Treasury waiving the rule in this instance. In other words, no question of “getting around” US law involved. As far as I can tell, the argument that no concession can be made on the BDA funds because it would be a violation of US law is a straw man. If I’m wrong, please let me know.
I really object to the headline on this thread, Bush is not ‘acting like’ a pansy……;^)
China Hand,
If you have been following this issue closely, you would know that Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act is part of US law and the Treasury Deparment’s ruling on BDA was simply acting under the authority presribed by that law.
I guess the Treasury Department could have chosen to ignore its responsibility under the law and looked the other way, which would certainly have made Chris Hill happy.
If that is a straw man, it is a straw man passed by both houses of Congress.
Here’s what Patriot Act Section 311 is about (from the House of Representatives analysis):
Sec. 311. Special measures for jurisdictions, financial institutions, or international transactions or accounts of primary money laundering concern. Section 311, included in both the Senate bill and H.R. 3004, adds a new section 5318A to the Bank Secrecy Act, to give the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with other senior government officials, authority (in the Secretary’s discretion), to impose one or more of five new “special measures” against foreign jurisdictions, foreign financial institutions, transactions involving such jurisdictions or institutions, or one more types of accounts, that the Secretary, after consultation with Secretary of State and the Attorney General, determines to pose a “primary money laundering concern” to the United States. The special measures include: (1) requiring additional recordkeeping or reporting for particular transactions; (2) requiring the identification of the foreign beneficial owners of certain accounts at a U.S. financial institution; (3) requiring the identification of customers of a foreign bank who use an interbank payable-through account opened by that foreign bank at a U.S. bank; (4) requiring the identification of customers of a foreign bank who use an interbank correspondent account opened by that foreign bank at a U.S. bank; and (5) after consultation with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, restricting or prohibiting the opening or maintaining of certain interbank correspondent or payable-through accounts. Measures (1) through (4) may not be imposed for more than 120 days except by regulation, and measure (5) may only be imposed by regulation.
endquote
Patriot Act Section 311 investigations are designed to be unilateral, secret, without due process, and rescindable by the executive branch. The fifth special measure—the one applied to BDA—is intended as a coercive tool to use the threat of a cutoff from the US financial system to compel foreign banks and jurisdictions to improve their anti money-laundering measures to the satisfaction of the Treasury Department. Then Treasury can rescind the rule when it deems fit, as it has already done in other cases.
Treasury can revise or withdraw the rule at any time for whatever reason and without any public hearing. Interested parties can petition (as BDA has) but Treasury has no obligation to respond to the petition. In other words, Section 311 is meant to be a discretionary tool of the executive branch. It’s deliberately designed to use the means of a regulatory “rule” to give the executive branch complete freedom of action, without further legislative action or judicial review.
It’s rather…ironic to see the people who exploited the extreme executive latitude provided by PA 311 to go after BDA now claim that the measure against BDA is an irrevocable law that can’t be tampered with—or, as some have said, that State Department officials are complicit in money laundering for getting Wachovia Bank to declare it is willing to handle the funds if it gets approval from Treasury. I know it’s a prevalent anti-State Department talking point, but it’s just plain wrong.
I commend South Korea’s efforts to serve as a “balancer” of sorts - at least in some cases - in NE Asia. Unfortunately, they can’t really carry out such a role if the other parties involved - in this case, the United States and North Korea - aren’t interested in them participating in such a capacity.
As with the Sunshine Policy, there should come a point when, if the plan isn’t working, South Korea might consider making a few adjustments.
I don’t think a few simple adjustments will do…it needs a complete overhaul.
As I assume you know, 311 is an enforcement tool used as the means prevent laundered money from entering the US financial system. The Treasury Department is in no way going beyond what Congress authorized it to do to enforce US law. 311 was not some bit of Bush administration sneakery, but was in fact introduced by Democratic Senator John Kerry as a seperate bill.
So, under the resposibility given it by Congress, the Treasury department has identified BDA as a money laundering concern and has restricted it from access to the US financial market.
As for a law being “irrevocable,” where in the world did you get that idea? There is no irevocable law. Even the Constitution is changable (and has been changed 27 times). You are certainly free to write your member of Congress and ask him or her to investigate or change the law. That is if you have a member to write to. If not…..
So, per US law, BDA cannot use the US financial system. Wachovia is part of the US financial system. So, Wachovia cannot work with BDA. Perhaps the Bush administration will find a way around that law, but it hasn’t yet. Maybe Bush should write his member of Congress.
Back to the point: There is nothing preventing the North Koreans from getting their money. The only straw man in this whole deal is their insitance that they use a US bank to get it.
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