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Category: Diplomacy

October 16, 2009

China: The John Edwards of Diplomacy

[Update: According to this story, Wen put off signing an economic development deal with Pyongyang worth “several billion dollars” dollars after Kim Jong Il failed to provide a “clear” statement about returning to six-party talks. I can’t say whether China’s offer came with the Obama Administration’s tacit approval or provoked quiet disapproval, but if we’re back in the business of paying North Korea to come back to talks to stall and lie, we’re right back at square one. The only...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions
October 5, 2009

State Dep’t: North Korea Will Return to Six-Party Talks

There is a catch:  North Korea’s willingness depends on the outcome of bilateral talks, meaning that North Korea will demand (and probably get) bilateral concessions before it returns to demand multilateral concessions … in exchange for a lot of dry air. A friendly reminder:  we’re no closer to actual North Korean disarmament than we were in December 2006, the last time this cycle began.  I’ll boldly predict that these talks won’t end any differently. Hat tip to a friend; link...

Categories Six-Party Talks
October 3, 2009

We Are All Neocons

Don Kirk, writing in the Asia Times, concludes that however North Korea behaves toward its neighbors at any given moment, it is determined to get our money and keep its nukes. That’s not an astonishing conclusion for any intelligent analyst of North Korean behavior, but Don’s writing is always worth a read. I try to refrain from predicting whether North Korea’s next move will be provocation or the North Korean equivalent of a “charm offensive,” since the options aren’t mutually...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions
September 29, 2009

Obama Administration Says First Words About Human Rights in North Korea

Eight months, a missile test, and a nuclear test after President Obama’s inauguration, he has finally gotten around to nominating Bob King to be Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, a move mandated by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 and the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008. The United States said Friday it was “very concerned” about human rights violations in North Korea, as President Barack Obama named an envoy to focus on...

Categories Activism/Diplomacy/Human Rights/U.S. Politics
September 19, 2009

Sanctions Are Good for Diplomacy, But Diplomacy Won’t Disarm North Korea

Despite warnings from the foreign policy establishment (most notably, Selig Harrison and Ralph Cossa, among many others) that sanctioning North Korea would drive North Korea away from disarmament talks, the opposite seems to be happening — the election of a seemingly liberal administration brought only provocations from North Korea, while tough sanctions are forcing them to feign interest in disarming: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country’s nuclear arms programme...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions
September 19, 2009

Bill Clinton: “What I Was Trying to Do Was Not Smile and Not Scowl”

So he said on the Daily Show yesterday, on his photo op with Kim Jong Il. The Puffington Host has video here. Of greater interest to me personally is whether a medical professional will ever get around to diagnosing Bubba as a sociopath. I once had a lengthy discussion about this subject with a psychologist whom I was considering as an expert for my defense team. Similar musings on Kim Jong Il, here.

Categories Diplomacy/Useful Idiocy
September 16, 2009

What I Think of the Bilateral Talks Talk

I’ve let much of the sturm and drang over the announcement of a bilateral meeting with the North Koreans pass while I tried to acquire a sense of what this really means, and whether it necessarily suggests that Obama’s not-bad North Korea policy is going to revert to something weaker, something ironically like the policy George W. Bush ultimately adopted, and which failed so completely to achieve American interests. Conservatives have gotten into the habit of opposing bilateral talks with...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
September 8, 2009

A Nominee for the Unfortunate Photo Op Hall of Fame

Good for Stephen Bosworth, trying to stay relevant while Philip Goldberg shows us the kind of diplomacy North Korea really understands … but is this really the way he wanted to say, “Hey, remember me?” The good news is that the Obama people still appear to be sticking to their guns — demanding complete and verifiable denuclearization as a precondition to all of the goodies. Not that that will ever happen, but I’m happy to see the sanctions tightened until...

Categories Diplomacy
August 28, 2009

UAE Intercepts N. Korean Arms Ship

[The ANL Australia, photo from here] The ship was on its way to Iran, carrying weapons whose trade is embargoed by UNSCR 1874: Diplomats at the UN identified the vessel as the Bahamian-flagged ANL-Australia. The vessel was seized some weeks ago. The UN sanctions committee has written to the Iranian and North Korean governments pointing out that the shipment puts them in violation of UN resolution 1974. [Financial Times, Simeon Kerr and Harvey Morris] Because they probably had no idea....

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/Iran/Proliferation/Sanctions
August 28, 2009

Attorney General Kills Indictment of Bill Richardson

A Justice Department investigation into “Kim Jong Bill” Richardson for a pay to play scandal has reportedly been “killed in Washington,” which I infer to mean killed by Eric Holder. The decision comes shortly after Richardson’s former Secretary of State was indicted for her efforts “cover up a vast money laundering and embezzlement scheme.” I haven’t seen the prosecutors’ case against Richardson, of course. How low must your moral stature must be if you ever find yourself arranging the chair...

Categories Appeasement/Sanctions
August 23, 2009

Easing of Tensions Amid Intensifying Sanctions Confounds Diplomats, “Peace Studies” Majors

Funny thing is, it was just yesterday that Selig Harrison was telling us that sanctions would make the North Koreans so mad they’d stomp away and not talk to us. And then I read this: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has sent word that he wants to hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the latest sign of easing tensions between the divided nations, news reports said Monday. Kim’s envoy proposed the summit during a rare...

Categories Diplomacy/North-South/Sanctions
August 13, 2009

China Finally Enforcing N. Korea Sanctions, Kinda?

To say the very least, I remain deeply skeptical that China’s effort will be sustained, complete, or in good faith, but here are two stories that suggest to some degree, China is restricting trade with North Korea.  The first (as the reader who sent the link notes) comes directly from the ChiCom state media, so take it with a tablespoon of salt. Shan, who has run the corporation for 16 years, said he has forged close relations with officials in...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology/Sanctions
August 12, 2009

Mary Robinson Is Not Worthy

President Obama, for God-knows-what reason, has decided to award former U.N. bureaucrat Mary Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor.  Years ago, I expressed my intense distaste for Mary Robinson: Mary Robinson was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2001, during the height of the Great North Korean Famine, while China flagrantly violated the U.N. Convention on Refugees to keep the starving millions outside its borders. While millions more died in a...

Categories "United" Nations/Europe/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
August 10, 2009

Hillary Clinton’s Death-Glare Renders African Student Permanently Impotent

OK, so Hillary Clinton has had a few stumbles in her diplomatic outreach to old enemies (it’s probably for the best anyway). Maybe this would be a good time to clear the palate with a gauzy “public diplomacy” photo op in some backward place where the natives will show deference to Her Majesty: Whooooa — he stands corrected! I think that poor fellow’s voice rose a whole octave. I wonder what has the Secretary so sensitive about her position and...

Categories Diplomacy
August 10, 2009

Kremlinology Watch, Washington Edition: Did the Clintons Just Screw Up Our North Korea Policy Again?

How far has Kim Jong Il’s skillful use of two American hostages set back our efforts to disarm him? Assuming, as we safely can, that President Obama made some concessions for their release, all now depends on whether the President is willing to let himself be upstaged by the Clintons, be cornered into making concessions under the duress of an implicit threat to the safety of two American hostages, and give needlessly fastidious honor to a deal between two men...

Categories Appeasement/U.S. Politics/Washington Views