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Behold … the Awesome Moral Authority of John Kerry! (Updated)

Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on North Korea to release the women “promptly and unconditionally.”

While he said the release should be a humanitarian gesture not linked to the nuclear showdown, Kerry said that North Korea had an opportunity to reach out.

“We hope that common sense is going to prevail and that North Korea will see this not as an opportunity to further dig a hole but as an opportunity to open up and reach out to the world,” said Kerry, the failed 2004 presidential candidate.  [AFP]

This, after blocking a bill demanding their release and attaching actual consequences to their captivity.  Obviously, Kerry believes his awesome moral authority alone is enough.

This, by the way, from a Foreign Relations Committee hearing at which Kerry solicited the counsel of disingenuous Kim Jong Il apologist Leon Sigal as a witness.  No word on whether he was there to represent Kim Jong Il officially.

Watching these hearings, I’m constantly struck by the absence of any significant Republican presence, and the vapidness of their questions.  Those who are on the Committee appear not to have much intellectual depth, a serious understanding of the issues, or a particular interest in foreign relations generally.  Admittedly, I could only catch bits and pieces, but it was actually my own Sen. Ben Cardin (D, MD) who made the best impression on me.

Update:  I found this choice of words by Special Envoy Stephen “Bud” Bosworth interesting:

Ambassador Stephen Bosworth said yesterday the U.S. isn’t “threatening to change the North Korean regime by force,” and urged the government in Pyongyang to respond to diplomacy. Yet he said the U.S. won’t accept a North Korea with nuclear bombs. [Bloomberg]

While I doubt the sincerity of the threat, it could be read a veiled threat to change the regime by means other than force.  That happens to be the very thing Kim Jong Il truly fears.

2 Responses

  2. Good gravy!!

    In preparation for going back to Korea, I’ve started looking at things I haven’t had the patience for for awhile – and I am remembering why.

    This is from Kerry’s opening statement on the 11 June Foreign Relations Cmte Hearing:

    The Obama administration should be commended for this strong, united outcome, and China deserves recognition as well. As North Korea’s ally and largest trading partner, China can play a decisive role in the peaceful resolution of this crisis. I was in China when North Korea conducted its second nuclear test, and I am convinced that China shares our opposition to the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

    I guess words do speak louder than actions, because after years and years of seeing China do what it feels it needs to prevent regime collapse – including thwarting efforts at applying effective pressure on NK — Kerry got to look in their eyes – like Bush with Putin – and see they really do mean what they say…I guess like the UN as an institution. Why worry?

    The first crisis ended in 1994 with the signing of the Agreed Framework, which froze the North’s production of plutonium for eight years.

    In 2002, the Bush Administration confronted North Korea with allegations that it was cheating on the Agreed Framework. But the Bush administration ruled out direct talks to resolve the issue. The result was the second nuclear crisis – the demise of the Agreed Framework, North Korea’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and the quadrupling of North Korea’s stockpile of fissile material.

    The man is a fossil.

    The standard “The Agreed Framework 1.0 was working until Bush screwed it up! If he’d just have had direct talks with NK, Pyongyang was so ready to deal and follow through!!”

    The man must have lost his senses for the whole of the last few years and doesn’t know who Chris Hill is or what he’s done and what resulted from it…

    But it gets worse:

    Step one is getting a unified response from the UN. That result appears imminent. But then we must resist the temptation to go into a defensive crouch. The past teaches us that benign neglect is not a viable option.

    America must lead efforts to stop the current negative cycle of action and reaction and begin the hard diplomatic work needed to deliver results.

    WE must stop the cycle of action and reaction!! It is up to us to use “leadership” in – what? – showing how big we are by not responding to NK’s provocations and sticking with the idea that we can buy them into compliance???!!!???

    Good gravy…

    This is the head of our Foreign Relations Cmte. Hopeless…

    As we seek to engage, we should remember the counsel of former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who advised us to deal with North Korea, “as it is, not as we would wish it to be.” We should not assume that North Korea sees the world the way we do.

    The man is an intellectually a fossil — he’s become petrified…

    Isn’t William Perry one of the guys currently talking about using military strikes?

    Seriously — this should make us worry about John Kerry’s mental makeup at this point. Because, if I am to take him literally here, that I should listen to William Perry, and I happen to listen to what Perry has to say right now, I’d have to think Kerry wants us to bomb North Korea — which is clearly not what he’s saying…

    This opening statement sounds like a man who has no idea what has been going on for the last two to three years…