More on North Korea

[Doug Pensinger]

Countering Gautam's spin: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/international/asia/12ASSE.html?pagewanted=1&todaysheadlines

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 -- An Asian diplomat emerged from one of the many meetings on defusing the North Korean nuclear crisis saying that no one could know what Kim Jong Il wants: a nuclear arsenal or new relationship with the West.

But the real mystery, he said, is here in Washington. "I'd just like to get a handle on what President Bush has in mind," he said. This administration, he said, "sends as many conflicting signals as the North Koreans."


Even many of Mr. Bush's staunchest loyalists concede that the administration's approach to North Korea has been a confusing case study in atomic diplomacy. The White House took 18 months to settle on a strategy that promised real engagement, including eventual security guarantees and normalization of relations that North Korea has craved for years. In the end, the offer was never made because of revelations about North Korea's secret nuclear program.

Then, perhaps hoping that it could avoid a confrontation that would distract from its campaign against Iraq, Mr. Bush never described to North Korea what might happen if it crosses the nuclear "red lines." Though he has often said he will never allow "the world's worst dictators to obtain the world's worst weapons," Mr. Bush has never specifically warned North Korea about how -- if at all -- he would respond if the country began producing bomb-grade plutonium that could produce half a dozen weapons by summer."

Doug

GCU Blame it on Carter (yea, that's the ticket class)



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