4 March 2010: WaPo on North Korea and Burma

It may be almost as revealing as the White House’s concern about growing military (and nuclear?) cooperation between North Korea and Burma that David Albright, asked to comment by the Washington Post, takes a strikingly alarmist point of view about these new developments. Albright, you will recall, had said for years that the Bush Administration had inflated fears that North Korea had an undeclared uranium enrichment program. I don’t suppose that I will ever be in agreement with David Albright about how to solve the newly confronted problem, but no one should be condemned for the inconsistency inherent in coming to one’s senses. Despite the tone of his comments at this site, I bear no personal grudge against Albright. He’s even showing signs of coming around on the uranium issue. Sure, you could say his tone has changed because a Democrat is President, but let’s be charitable enough (no, really) to admit that North Korea’s behavior in 2009 pretty much kicked the legs out from under any defensible argument that it’s (a) not really interested in having nuclear weapons, and (b) amenable to diplomatic compromise.

The Diplomat has a long article about the anachronism that is U.S. Forces Korea. If you’ve come here, you may be interested in reading some quotes by me on page three. On the other hand, you’ll have to suffer through some quotes by the John Feffer, a Chomsky-endorsed apologist for the Great Famine.

North Korea asking to abrogate its mutual defense pact with China (link in Korean)? I seriously doubt it.