Kim Not Sorry, Won’t Return To Talks
by Richardson ~ October 22nd, 2006. Filed under: Axis of Evil, Diplomacy, Engagement, Kim Jong-il, Nuclear Proliferation.Update: From Reuters: North Korea didn’t apologize for test: China.
Original Post: Recent news reports of Kim Jong-il being “sorry” about the 9 October nuclear test, and that he has offered to return to the Six-Party Talks if the U.S. lifts financial sanctions have, I think, missed the mark pretty widely on the interpretation side of the house.
First, Kim “expressed regret,” which can be much different than being “sorry” about something. Taking that a step further, assume Kim really did use the word “sorry.” Sorry about what? Sorry that the U.S. and international community got so upset? Sorry it’s going to cost him remittances from Japan? Ambiguous speech is something of a North Korean specialty.
The offer to return to Six-Party Talks is a big non-news item as well; North Korea was saying the exact same thing before the nuclear test. In September the U.S. even offered to meet bilaterally with North Korea if Pyongyang returned to the Six-Party Talks - the North refused:
Washington also made clear this week that it would meet separately with North Korea if it agrees to resume the nuclear talks. Pyongyang has long demanded bilateral talks, which until now, the U.S. had said could only be held in the context of the six-nation nuclear talks.
Pyongyang is boycotting the nuclear talks to protest financial sanctions the United States imposed because of alleged North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting.
Kim isn’t sorry about the nuke test - far from it - and the offer to return to talks is still attached to a precondition it knows will not materialize until it proves it has ceased its illegal activities, which it won’t do.
October 23rd, 2006 at 7:53 am
Kim is just trying to make the US seem unreasonable for not lifting the financial sanctions on him in order to return to six party talks. What annoys me more than anything is that the media is helping Kim push his unreasonable Bush administration claims by not offering any analysis of why he is apologizing or showing regret.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
North Korea? Regrets? Ha!
It seems the only sources of these reports are in China. The Chosun Ilbo says “Kim apologized to Beijing for going ahead with its threatened nuclear test on October 9”. Well, of course Kim apologized to China, but he’s not about to apologize to anyone else–especially not to the United States.
It’s not in Kim’s interest to return to the talks, anyway. It was a windfall for North Korea when Bush identified it as the first of three nations in the “Axis of Evil”, especially when it became obvious that he (Bush) was going to spend nearly all his military and political capital on the invasion of Iraq. North Korea must have been pleased—if mystified—to receive that unexpected reprieve. Three free years to reprocess plutonium, refine uranium, engineer nuclear triggers, and build more bombs! Woo hoo!
Kim has always been a master of keeping his head down for a specified period of time, only to pop back up and remind everyone he’s still there by, say, trying to decapitate the South Korean government by blowing up a bomb in Rangoon.
He doesn’t regret a thing. A master of realpolitik, that little, gnome. And our government still hasn’t figured him out.
October 23rd, 2006 at 7:25 pm
AP - and therefore much of the U.S. press - is still churning out North Korea’s big ‘offer’ to return to talks;
In other words, if the U.S. ignores North Korea’s illegal activity.
October 23rd, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Ok, someone in the press is clear on this, but I doubt it will hit the mainstream in the States;
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ24Dg01.html
October 24th, 2006 at 4:16 am
It certainly won’t hit the mainstream in the States; it’s not even ‘Merican press.
Asia Times? they’ll think. What do they know?
October 24th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
This whole thing started with a dodgy report by the Chosun Ilbo, which has had quite a few misfires in recent days.
October 24th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
China looks N.korea’s spokescountry. China is evil as well as N.Korea. Do not lift any financial sanctions on N.Korean and put another sanctions on China. The U.S. can take GSP previlege to China back and ban import from China, and boycott Beijing olympic games. What the hell is N.Korea doing? 2 mill. people were dead without food and 6 mill. are malnutious but they are playing fireworks. Kim and his close cabinet members must be assissinated.
October 25th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Unless you make tokyo and seoul, the designated sacrificial lambs, nk most likely won’t disappear.
by the time when it’s all said and done, nk will stand with its million man army holding couple of nukes, by that time rodong3 might fly.
in the mean time, millions of nk’s will die. and die. and die.
Couldn’t you do a reverse manchurian candidate ?
take one of them u.n rep for example….
any volunteers ?