Anju Links for 19 August 2008
OLD FAITHFUL ERUPTS, RIGHT ON SCHEDULE: Remember that tantrum I predicted?
”The DPRK submitted an accurate and complete nuclear declaration,” the [KCNA] commentary said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
”The U.S., however, has not honored its commitment to write the DPRK off the list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism,’ a key political compensation in concluding the implementation of the agreement,” it said.
”This is obviously a violation of the principle of ‘action for action’ essential for realizing denuclearization,” the commentary said. [Kyodo News]
Damned if I can find that statement directly at the source, but I’ll take their word for it.
North Korea accused the United States on Monday of using human rights to block progress in a six-nation agreement on eliminating nuclear weapons in the communist country.
U.S. President George W. Bush “blustered that he would handle the ‘human rights issue’ as ‘an element for negotiations with North Korea,'” the official Korean Central News Agency said, referring to comments made by Bush during his recent visit to Asia.
“We categorically dismiss this as a premeditated act of the U.S. to deliberately throw a hurdle in the process of the six-party talks” and avoid implementing key points of a disarmament deal, KCNA said. [IHT]
C’mon KCNA, can’t you do any better than that? I was hoping for at least one use of the word “brigandish.”
“The ‘human rights’ ruckus again kicked up by the U.S. is a product of its deliberate scheme to deter the six-party talks from making progress and completely scuttle the denuclearization process,” KCNA said.
Which is to say, the denuclearization process in which North Korea has recently and repeatedly told us it will never give up its nuclear weapons. The State Department, for the moment, is rejecting the North Korean charge and standing fast on verification.
BUT WE MUSTN’T INTERVENE IN THEIR INTERNAL AFFAIRS:
“Lee Myung Bak Group’s Moves to Control Pubic Broadcasting Service Assailed.” [headline, KCNA]
In case you haven’t seen my comment on the subject, it’s here. Lee’s actions are far from ideal, much farther from North Korea, which ranks dead last in RSF’s global press freedom index. I’m not certain that North Korea was also dead last in Freedom House’s press freedom index, but Iran, Saudi Arabia, Angola, the Palestinian Territories, Equitorial Guinea, and Sudan all ranked as marginally less oppressive. You’d think North Korea would have shame enough not to chastise anyone else on freedom of the press.
HE PROBABLY SHOULDN’T INTERVENE IN HIS OWN INTERNAL AFFAIRS, EITHER:
President Lee Myung-bak on Monday warned North Korea ill continue to attempt to ‘sow ideological dissent’ in the South in a bid to prevent it from pooling its national capabities. [Chosun Ilbo]
I think there’s much we still don’t know about North Korea’s influence in the South, although what we do know is scary enough.
NOW HERE’S A BRIGANDISH SCHEME IF I’VE EVER SEEN ONE:
“I have a sincere principle that North Korea should quickly open and build economic self-reliance in the international community,” Lee said in an interview with Yahoo.com posted Monday.
North Korea introduced limited economic reforms in 2002 but has since backtracked after they failed to resuscitate its economy and allowed some outside influences into the tightly controlled nation.
Lee, a former construction industry chief executive, also urged North Korea to forge “coexistence and co-prosperity” through sincere talks with South Korea, saying he is confident the two Koreas will soon improve their current soured relations.
The two countries remain at odds over the shooting death last month of a South Korean tourist at a North Korean mountain resort. [IHT]