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May 2, 2009

Obama Policy Watch: Reality Sinking In?

There have been several signs this week that the Obama Administration is reaching an early recognition of the realities that eluded the Bush Administration for most of its two terms. Recent statements from the new administration reflect a growing acknowledgment that unconditional aid and easy concessions have failed as tools for the “management” of Kim Jong Il. That acknowledgment would not have been possible without the inspiration of Kim Jong Il. I will give you some quotes, and then I’ll...

Categories U.S. Politics/Washington Views
March 16, 2009

Opposition to Christopher Hill’s Iraq Ambassador Nomination Grows

Somewhere, Anthony Zinni must be smiling. There are now four senators — Brownback of Kansas, McCain of Arizona, Graham of South Carolina, and Ensign of Nevada — who have declared their opposition to Chris Hill becoming the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Recall from the experience of Kathleen Stephens, now our Ambassador to South Korea, that it takes just one senator to hold an ambassador’s nomination. Hill’s nomination will not go forward unless those senators all lift their holds. [Oops:...

Categories Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
March 12, 2009

And there was much wailing in Riyadh

Tienanmen Massacre defender Charles Freeman has withdrawn his name as the Obama Administration’s nominee to head the National Intelligence Council. Freeman’s nomination did not require Senate confirmation. As he withdrew, Freeman blamed “the Israel lobby” for spiking his prospects, and while it’s apparent that friends of Israel like Sen. Charles Schumer weren’t fond of Freeman, the decisive veto came from Nancy Pelosi because of Freeman’s extreme apologist views for the Chinese regime’s atrocities. The Washington Post later editoralized that Freeman...

Categories U.S. Politics/Washington Views
March 12, 2009

Brownback: Chris Hill was ‘evasive and unprofessional’ in his dealings with Congress

Senator Sam Brownback has come out against Chris Hill’s nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: I am deeply concerned about the possibility of Assistant Secretary Hill serving in the crucial post of Ambassador to Iraq,” Brownback said. “While I commend Mr. Hill for his long and dedicated career in the Foreign Service, I believe that his lack of any Middle East experience, and his evasive and unprofessional dealings with Congress, make him a poor choice for leading our largest,...

Categories U.S. Politics/Washington Views
March 11, 2009

David Asher: How to Talk to North Korea

If Marcus Noland and Stephen Haggard are the world’s foremost experts on the North Korean economy, David Asher may be the world’s foremost expert on its illicit side — drugs, counterfeiting, arms trafficking, and the recouping of its ill-gotten gains. Asher served as the Coordinator of the State Department’s North Korea Working Group and the NSC’s North Korea Activities Group from 2003-2005. In that capacity, he was a key architect of the financial constriction strategy that briefly forced the North...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views
February 17, 2009

Prof. Sung Yoon Lee in the Asia Wall Street Journal

One of the most consistently perceptive commentators on dealing with North Korea is Professor Sung-Yoon Lee, an adjunct assistant professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. By a very interesting coincidence, Stephen Bosworth, the next North Korea Special Envoy, is the Dean there. If Bosworth tolerates views this much at odds with his own, we can certainly hope he’s open-minded enough to take some good advice from Prof. Lee — if not...

Categories Diplomacy/Washington Views
February 9, 2009

Keeping His Enemies Closer, Obama Steals a Trick from Nixon’s Book

A very interesting piece in the Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration will expand and restructure the National Security Council to make it the main circuit cable for all its national security deliberations. [National Security Advisor James] Jones, a retired Marine general, made it clear that he will run the process and be the primary conduit of national security advice to Obama, eliminating the “back channels” that at times in the Bush administration allowed Cabinet secretaries and the vice...

Categories U.S. Politics/Washington Views
February 8, 2009

Christopher Hill, Obama’s Choice to Be Iraq Ambassador, Showed Poor Judgment and Dishonesty as N. Korea Negotiator

I guess we can add another name to the list of those who have little use for Christopher Hill, the front-runner to be President Obama’s next ambassador to Iraq: General Anthony Zinni, the former top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the Obama administration offered him the Baghdad job late last month but withdrew the appointment without explanation, apparently in favor of a veteran diplomat, Christopher Hill. With Zinni fuming in undiplomatic fashion about the way he was treated,...

Categories Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
January 29, 2009

Obama Cabinet Watch: Abandon All Hope Now

Governor “Kim Jong” Bill Richardson is reported to be in the running for appointment as Special Envoy to North Korea, a position the Democrats are talking about dual-hatting with the position of special envoy for human rights. As I noted previously, Richardson’s statements to or about North Korea are conspicuously devoid of any references to North Korea’s death camps, its malign neglect of millions of starving people, or public executions. Worse, Richardson actively sought out photo ops with officials of...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
January 26, 2009

Eberstadt: What Went Wrong

So over the weekend, I finally had a chance to read Nicholas Eberstadt’s fine summary of the Bush Administration’s eight years of drift and indecision on North Korea (hat tip to Robert Koehler). It’s hard to pick a favorite passage, but this one certainly struck a chord: In the absence of a coherent policy, though, the imperative of “success” in talks with North Korea suddenly took on a life of its own for the Bush team. (After all, there was...

Categories Money Laundering/NK Economics/Washington Views
January 24, 2009

Jay Lefkowitz: Requiem for a Bantamweight

To the limited degree history remembers Jay Lefkowitz at all, it should remember him as a good and well-meaning man who was unequal to the great task laid before him. I have sometimes suspected that this was the very design of those who appointed him. With the change of administrations this week, Lefkowitz departed as Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, leaving behind a final report that still clings obediently to the myth of constructive engagement with sociopaths:...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Washington Views
January 22, 2009

Gullible’s Travels: The Selective Disbelief of Selig S. Harrison

Here’s the latest installment of North Korea’s hostile policy: The North Korean military declared an “all-out confrontational posture” against South Korea on Saturday as an American scholar said North Korean officials told him they had “weaponized” enough plutonium for roughly four or five nuclear bombs. American intelligence officials have previously estimated that the North had harvested enough fuel for six or more bombs, although it has never been clear whether the North constructed the weapons. The scholar, Selig S. Harrison,...

Categories Media Criticism/Proliferation/Washington Views/WMD
January 19, 2009

AEI Scholars Predict Gloomy Future for N. Korea Policy

Dan Blumenthal, who was a senior foreign policy advisor to John McCain, has teamed up with Aaron Friedberg again to offer “An American Strategy for Asia,” one that might have gotten wider circulated had the economy not collapsed shortly before the election. Their ideas will probably experience continuous vindication as we near the mid-point of the third Clinton Administration, which by my count started around December 2006. Unfortunately, there is little reason to doubt at this point that the Kim...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views
January 15, 2009

John Bolton Abducts Hillary Clinton, Assumes Her Identity, Nears Easy Confirmation Wearing Drag and Mask

First George W. Bush became Jimmy Carter, now this, at “Hillary Clinton’s” confirmation hearing: “Our goal is to end the North Korean nuclear program – both the plutonium reprocessing program and the highly enriched uranium program, which there is reason to believe exists, although never quite verified,” she said. Her vision of North Korea policy was much stronger in her written statements provided to Senator Richard Lugar before the hearing. “The new Administration will pursue direct diplomacy bilaterally and within...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
January 12, 2009

Chris Hill Screws Up North Korea Diplomacy, Demands Promotion

A recent consensus has formed around the collapse of the latest round of denuclearization talks for North Korea: that the U.S. State Department’s North Korea policy, formulated by Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, had a disturbing lack of concern for human rights and had been largely ineffective in obtaining any substantial security concessions from the North Korean regime. The Kim Jong-il-run enclave saw right through the past months of talks as a...

Categories Washington Views
January 5, 2009

Rice Denies Idiocy Rumors

The first rule of escaping an obvious conclusion is not to suggest it yourself: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview released on Friday only an “idiot” would trust North Korea, which is why the United States is insisting on a way to check its nuclear claims. [Reuters] Well, thanks for clearing that up for us, Madame Secretary. Was this just a case of protesting too much or does this suggest that Maoist self-criticism will be this year’s...

Categories Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views
December 18, 2008

Chris Hill Resignation Watch

Jack and Wolmae point to a statement by Chris Hill that Obama’s people have not invited him to stick around. On balance, I agree they probably won’t, but I’m not sure I agree that this article answers the question. First, parse Hill’s words. When asked if Obama’s people asked him to stay, he said, “I haven’t talked to anybody about my future.” Even for Hill, that statement contains a lot of loopholes. Second, consider the credibility of the source. I’ll...

Categories Washington Views