Clinton-Era Officials Come Out of Wood Work and Say U.S. Must Talk to North Korea
by James Na ~ July 6th, 2006. Filed under: Axis of Evil, DPRK Military, Diplomacy, Engagement, Geopolitics, Hunger & Famine, North Korea, U.S.-Korea Relations.The Clintonistas who gave us the 1994 Agreed Framework (you know, the Western aid for North Korean nothing deal) are squawking that the U.S. must now talk to North Korea.
Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and Clinton’s UN ambassador and secretary of Energy Department says:
We need to return to the table and hammer out the details of a comprehensive solution to North Korea’s nuclear threat. We also need to start an aggressive, bilateral dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea - including what concrete economic benefits will come North Korea’s way if it cooperates on dismantling its nuclear program. [snip]We must turn North Korea away from its nuclear brinkmanship and toward providing a stable food supply and more opportunity for its people. This means direct engagement from the highest levels in Washington employing all the tools at our disposal. [Boldface mine.]
Gee, that’s why North Korea has been engaged in provocations, because its people lack “more opportunity” and “stable food supply”? He makes the missile launches as if they are some sort of student protests or popular demonstrations against high food prices and lack of jobs!
I guess it’s the famed left-wing “root cause” theory of international aggression (or terrorism).
Similarly, Wendy Sherman, the Clinton-Albright adviser on North Korea, who reported that Kim Jong-il was delighted by the basketball signed by Michael Jordan she gave him, gives a noxious interview (inset, right colum), perpetuating the “international man of mystery” myth of Kim Joing-il by describing what a big Hollywood fan he is. Predictably enough, Sherman, too, says that the U.S. must deal with Kim.
But former Clinton SecState Albright takes the cake. She was on TV yesterday claiming that when she left office, the U.S.-North Korea relationship was on a much better footing!
She must have forgotten this:
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted for the first time on Sunday that under the Clinton administration’s Agreed Framework arms control treaty with Kim Jong-il, North Korea “cheated.”Asked point-blank if North Korea developed nuclear weapons during the Clinton administration, Albright told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “No, what they were doing, as it turns out, they were cheating.” [snip]
In a February 2003 interview, Albright boasted to NBC, “When we had the Agreed Framework, we did freeze those fuel rods, and had we not, in the last years, we would have somewhere, people calculate, 50 to 100 nuclear weapons.”
A 1999 congressional study determined that Pyongyang was cheating on the agreement, but Albright disregarded the warning and continued to claim that the Agreed Framework was a success.
As anyone who has dealt with children knows, if a child cries and you try to buy him off with candy, next time he is going to throw an even bigger tantrum. The Clinton administration gave the candy and now we are dealing with a bigger tantrum. More concessions like engaging in bilateral talks will merely invite escalations of threats from the North.
July 6th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Will Condi now go to Pyongyang and swann dance with those little North Korean childern like Madeline Halfbright did?
July 6th, 2006 at 11:21 am
You mean like this?
Wendy and Madeleine, showing how diplomacy is done (”we give you everything, you give us nothing, then we’ll all be happy!”)
July 6th, 2006 at 11:36 am
For that last photo, isn’t that Wendy Sherman in the background?
July 6th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Yes, hence my remark: “Wendy and Madeleine, showing how diplomacy is done (”we give you everything, you give us nothing, then we’ll all be happy!”)”
July 6th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, yeah James just like that
July 6th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
I wonder if Condi will bring him a basketball authographed by Dwayne Wade.
July 6th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
If Condi is my kinda gal (she is on the Second Amendment), she ought to bring a signed copy of Kang Chol-hwan’s book.
Better yet, I hope someone turns it into a film, then send Kim a copy since he loves Hollywood and all.
July 6th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
I’m voting for Condi for president whether she is on the ballot or not - thanks to one story I heard about her.
Don’t know if it is true or not —
but when she came to South Korea in early 2003 after the US media coverage of the orgy of hate had started putting an end to it in Korean society –
she was said to have been talking with her South Korean counter parts.
They were saying how the whole thing was regrettable, but if the US could have just done this and USFK that and Bush this, most of the trouble could have been avoided.
Some in the Condi crew pointed out that the military and US leaders had in fact done much of that.
But Condi is supposed to have asked the Koreans if they knew the two names of the girls who were crushed by the tank.
Of course they did.
Then she is said to have asked if they knew the names of the sailors who were killed a month or so before that in the West Sea Clash with NK.
They could not……
That is some major ball busting.
And that is the kind of straight talk I think we often need in this post-9/11 world…..when allies aren’t really allies and when we need real allies….
July 6th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
We should bomb the factory that makes those little NK “loyalty pins”. That’d show ‘em.
July 7th, 2006 at 4:44 am
Clinton-Era Officials Come Out of Wood Work and Say U.S. Must Talk to North Korea
Clinton-Era Officials Come Out of Wood Work and Say U.S. Must Talk to North Korea
Clinton-Era Officials Come Out of Wood Work and Say U.S. Must Talk to North Korea
[…] In the popular media, there seems to be a near universal consensus that the North Korean missile launch is an attempt at ballistic missile extortion. The main difference in opinion seems to be in response — hawks want a tough response (I count myself in this category); doves want to give in to the said extortion. […]