Diplomacy – Page 30

February 14, 2008

An Anniversary, But Nothing to Celebrate

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of Agreed Framework 2.0. So, how is that working out? North Korea threatened Friday to block progress in the six-party talks over its nuclear programs, claiming efforts by U.S. hardliners to disrupt dialogue with Pyongyang could aggravate the current standoff. The North also said it will have no choice but to take a certain measure “provided the U.S. warmongers keep taking a tough stance” against the communist state. The six-party talks hit a snag as...

Six-Party Talks

February 14, 2008

The Blue House Lied, People Died: How Appeasement Kills in North Korea

Today, the Chosun Ilbo helps us to peel away the myth of unmonitored “humanitarian” aid to North Korea. The aid wasn’t going to the people who needed it the most, and Roh’s government knew it all along. South Korean military authorities have known since 2003, when the Roh Moo-hyun administration was inaugurated, that North Korea has transported rice supplied by the South for humanitarian purposes to frontline units of the North Korean Army. The South Korean military has admitted it...

Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid

February 11, 2008

S. Korea Still Denies Paying Ransom to Taliban; Larry Craig Still Not Gay

After months of wildly inconsistent estimates ($2 million? $20 million?) of just how much ransom the South Koreans paid for their two dozen-odd hostages in Afghanistan, the Taliban is saying the actual amount was “at least” $4 million. This final, authoritative answer is brought to you by an unidentified “senior Taliban commander,” so we need not ever speak of this again. Until the next time it happens: If we were going to free them without any payment, [the hostage taking]...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)

February 10, 2008

Yonhap: N. Korea Using Heavy Fuel Oil for Military Exercises

[Update: I have to say that my doubts about this one, as expressed by my question below about refining, are considerable. Heavy fuel oil is nearly as thick as asphalt, not something I’d think could be refined into lighter, higher octane products cheaply. Bruce Klingner’s comment below adds to those doubts, and I offer a more plausible explanation. As with every other question about the diversion of aid to North Korea — and here is yet another such question —...

"United" Nations/Six-Party Talks

February 8, 2008

The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel

I’ve already said that I’m ambivalent about the visit of the New York Philharmonic to North Korea. They will play some good music, which will probably do little harm and little good. If we would just accept the music on its face value without injecting politics into it, this visit wouldn’t be taking on such a pernicious odor. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Spurred on by the mendacious appeaser Christopher Hill, the Philharmonic now imagines itself as an...

Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Human Rights/WTF?

February 8, 2008

Christopher Hitchens on the Rice-Lefkowitz Flap

Since Hitchens may have had something to do with goading Lefkowitz into making his original comments, I’ve been wondering how he would react to what resulted. I like to imagine that my little essay stung Lefkowitz a bit. At any event, he got up on his hind legs at the American Enterprise Institute in the third week of January and made an explicit criticism of the Bush administration that he serves. The State Department’s insistence on “diplomacy,” he argued, had...

Appeasement/Human Rights/U.S. Politics

February 7, 2008

U-Tubed, Part 4

Commenter ChosunHapa was kind enough to drop some links to Chris Hill’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday (transcript / video). Hill says that the “disablement” of (some of) North Korea’s nuclear facilities is proceeding well, contrary to what other reports tell us. He also assures us of his grave concern about Japanese abductees and human rights … which we’ll pursue on a separate track of course, after Kim Jong Il has what he wants from us....

Diplomacy/Media Criticism/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks

February 5, 2008

Senators Urge Bush Not to De-List N. Korea as Terror Sponsor

Six senators, all Republicans, have signed a letter to President Bush asking him not to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism yet. The senators are Sam Brownback of Kansas, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, John Kyl of Arizona (the minority whip), Charles Grassley of Iowa, … and Larry Craig. You can see a pdf of the letter — full text, signatures, and all, here: senate-letter.pdf Many thanks to the person who sent me...

Six-Party Talks/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics

February 4, 2008

N. Korea Demands Japan Drop Abductions Issue

Does this sound like a nation that has renounced terrorism? North Korea-Japan relations will never improve if Japan continues to link their improvement with a bilateral dispute over North Korea’s past abductions of Japanese nationals, North Korea’s state-run media said Thursday. In a lengthy commentary, the Korean Central News Agency said that North Korea has not forgiven Japan for forcing many Korean women into sexual slavery and taking many Korean men to Japan during World War II, and that it...

Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Japan & Korea/Terrorism (NK)

February 3, 2008

Advantage, Lefkowitz?

The latest Bush Administration official to return from Pyongyang empty-handed is Sung Kim, who spent three days in Pyongyang and got no nuclear declaration for his trouble. It’s a well known fact of diplomacy that even when no translation is necessary, it can take 72 hours to comprehend the utterance of the word “no. The latest Bush Administration alumnus to denounce its failing last-ditch appeasement of North Korea is former speechwriter Michael Gerson, who writes in the Washington Post about...

Diplomacy/Human Rights/U.S. Politics

January 31, 2008

N. Korea: We Won’t Budge

As State Department official Sung Kim heads for Pyongyang to try to save Chris Hill’s failing deal, North Korea is trying to be unambiguous about just how much it’s willing to give. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese Communist Party official Wednesday that there is no change in Pyongyang’s stance of implementing a six-party agreement on the North’s denuclearization, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. Kim made the remarks when he met with Wang Jiarui, head of...

China & Korea/Six-Party Talks

January 28, 2008

SOTU Speech Fails to Mention North Korea

I heard “Korea,” and I think I probably heard “North” somewhere, but I did not hear “North Korea.” It’s nice that President Bush stands against genocide in Sudan. Seriously. It would be better than “nice” if Bush would do something meaningful to stop it. It’s too bad, of course, that he chose to end his term as an abettor of a genocidal regime in North Korea. North Korea was even left out of his catch-all list of repressive nations abroad. ...

Appeasement/U.S. Politics

January 26, 2008

Fox: White House May Accept Incomplete N. Korean Declaration

“Foreign diplomatic sources” have told Fox News that Chris Hill has floated the idea of accepting a declaration that omits information about North Korea’s proliferation — to Syria, for instance — or its suspected uranium enrichment programs. With North Korea almost a month overdue on its obligation to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs and materiel, the Bush administration — under increasing pressure from American conservatives to take a harder line with Pyongyang, or abandon the...

Appeasement/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks

January 24, 2008

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Senate Subcommittee Finds Massive Irregularities in UN’s North Korea Development Aid

[Scroll down for updates.] The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has just released its report on the UN Development Program’s North Korea scandal. Previous postings here concern the U.S. Ambassador’s original complaint, Ban Ki Moon’s unrealized promises of a full investigation, and the suspicious termination of a whistleblower. First, the main findings: 1. UNDP operated in North Korea with inappropriate staffing, questionable use of foreign currency instead of local currency, and insufficient administrative and fiscal controls. 2. By preventing...

"United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/U.S. Politics

January 23, 2008

Just What We Needed: Our Very Own Ministry of Unification.

From a White House press briefing today: Q Is the administration about to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism? MS. PERINO: No. Right now where we are is waiting on the North Koreans to provide a complete and accurate declaration of their nuclear activities. So we’re continuing to wait for that. We still have people on the ground helping with the disablement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. So at this...

Diplomacy/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

January 23, 2008

Classless Condi

[Update: Miss that warm, moist pungence rising around your ankles? Here’s your fix for that: “I’m going to have a great deal more to say about elevating the issue of human rights in North Korea, which is clearly a priority for the president and Congress,” he said. [N.Y. Times, Helene Cooper] Exactly how stupid do these people think we are? Condi Rice has scarcely uttered a word about this in four years, has prevented anyone else but the marginalized...

Diplomacy/Human Rights/Washington Views

January 22, 2008

Plan B: How to Disarm Kim Jong Il Without Bombing Him

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein Plan A, gentle diplomacy, has again failed to disarm Kim Jong Il. Whenever this happens (every time it’s tried) advocates of doing the same thing over and over again fall back on The False Choice, whether expressly or by implication: it’s their way or war. They know better, of course, which technically makes this a lie. And usually, this lie stands uncorrected: “People lambaste...

Diplomacy/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks

January 19, 2008

Good Riddance, Ministry of Silly Talks

After weeks of conflicting reports, Lee Myung Bak’s transition team had made it official: the UniFiction Ministry goes to the ash-heap, along with the Ministries of Truth Information and Communication, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Science and Technology, and the Anti-Sex League Gender Equality and Family. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will become a much larger and more powerful Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Unification. As a whole, the government will shrink by more than 5%, about 7,000 employees....

Appeasement/Korean Politics

Category: Diplomacy