North Korea Delisted, or America Bends Over for Kim Jong-il, Again
by Richardson ~ October 11th, 2008. Filed under: Axis of Evil, Diplomacy, Election 2008, Engagement, Nuclear Proliferation, WTF?.The United States on Saturday removed North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
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McCormack said the United States and North Korea had reached agreement “on an number of important verification measures” of North Korea’s nuclear program.
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“Every element of verification that we sought is included in this package,” McCormack said at a news conference.A senior State Department official said earlier that President Bush made the decision Friday night to remove North Korea from the terrorism list.
What are the “element[s] of verification” the U.S. sought? Great question. Once upon a time it was CVID, or complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization was the goal. But that was given up a couple of years ago.
The kicker is this; North Korea already agreed to verification, but has consistently failed to allow it. Now they are, again, agreeing to verification, but getting delisted before coming through. They won’t.
RealClearPolitics has a McCain’s and Obama’s statements on North Korea’s delisting. Probably Obama will be elected, and ironically, he would be the one to continue Bush’s failed policy for North Korean denuclearization. I’m sure he won’t recognize that irony, or admit it if he did. I’ll say it again; Obama, if elected, will be America’s Roh Moo-hyun.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Obama will be many times more dangerous than “Sunshine Policy” Roh. He will legitimize N. Korea and the Juche regime as a fellow partner in the family of socialist nations.
God have mercy on the poor people of north Korea. The best thing they can do is to overthrow the government of Kim Jong Il and tell the US get the hell away from us; you propped up our oppression for a generation.
If Obama makes nice with the Juche regime, he is a war criminal.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
KCJ. Interesting. Please state your source. From what I’ve heard both Obama and McCain are hard liners when it comes to NK. And Obama has gone on the record saying that he does not want to take NK of the terror list.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Obama is clearly not a hardliner when it comes to North Korea, as his comments, few though they are, have shown. He is clueless when it comes to dealing with North Korea (as Bush now seems to be). I don’t expect the president to be an expert on every country; but I expect him to have and listen to advisers that are. Obama doesn’t have that.
Search the archives here or at OneFreeKorea (see left or right sidebars for links) for posts.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
North Korea has not been involved in any terrorist activity for a long time, if ever considering that the Korean question has yet to be resolved and is still subject to a state of war, albeit with an armistace.
This has more to do with Bush having two wars teetering on failure and an economy teetering on the edge.
North Korea has enough room to move they could complete and start up their power generating nuclear plants. Iran’s and Pakistan’s rocket programs are going great guns, so there is no apparent need to help out in that regard anymore.
$100 says this problem is still ongoing when Obama is running for his second term.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
The North Korea problem will exist until Kim Jong-il dies (after which it will be a different North Korea problem). Which is why giving them anything - especially based on their word - is stupid. Considering what has recently transpired to be “progress” is also stupid, since North Korea agreed to do all that and much more long ago; again, based on their word.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Something is up with KJI though. I do not know what it is, but something is wrong. The pictures released gave me alarm.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
As everyone must know by now, Korea has four distinct seasons; and the photos look more like Summer than Fall:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/839640.html