Tuesday, May 6, 2003
Hopefully the rumors of our caving in on North Korea are just that. While we certainly have other countries we need to take into account regarding our dealings with North Korea, most notably South Korea, no one can force us to pay tribute we don't want to.
Peter Brookes on North Korea on National Review Online - What the Bully Wants
[...]The North Korean problem is a nettlesome one at best. It is going to take some time — as well as close cooperation with Japan and South Korea — to resolve. North Korea likely will continue to act provocatively and simultaneously make conciliatory gestures. The key for us is to be patient.
Washington should continue to talk with North Korea, if only to justify a tougher approach later on. We should seek a peaceful resolution, but we should keep all options open. After all, we're the ones with the leverage.
I wish it was that simple. You may not realize it, but aside from the well-discussed WMD issues, North Korea is a hell on Earth, and its delusional, narcissistic leader is killing perhaps thousands of people a day.
See these two URLs for prison camp survivors stories:
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/SunOkLeeTestimony_w_llus.pdf
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/AnMyong-cholTestimony.pdf
I dare you, read these stories... Not for children..
I'm aware of it. Thanks for the links, I will definitely check them out when I've a bit of time.
The "hell on earth" bit is precisely why I believe Bush has been reluctant to give any ground at all to the DPRK. I've heard it said that he has a personal disgust for Kim Jong Il's regime. So it's a bit of concern that they seem to have moved to "Plan B" regarding the North - from preventing the DPRK from posessing nukes, to simply containing them. Either the administration is going soft, or they know something we don't OR they simply have a more workable strategy.
Probably a bit of the latter two.
Who knows, maybe they're suddenly getting more behind the scenes cooperation from China than meets the eye?