Giving Up

It's rather wonderful to listen to the maladministration making great play of the announcement that North Korea is any minute now going to dismantle its nuclear facilities. This is becoming a familiar theme. It is about the third time for these intentions to be heralded by the cabal as its accomplishment through negotiations. It's the little details that make it really, really silly. If you remember, which the cretin in chief thinks you won't, the nuclear facilities were supposed to be at least beginning to be dismantled before we let up our hold on funds that were realized by counterfeiting and other kinds of theft by the North Korean government.

Those funds we had put a hold on have been released, and no conditions for their release have yet been met.

Russian news agencies, citing unnamed finance ministry officials, reported Saturday that the North Korean funds had reached Dalkombank, a bank in the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.

Bank officials could not be located to comment on the reports, while no one answered phones at the Central Bank or the Finance Ministry.

Russia's deputy foreign minister said Friday the funds would be fully transferred sometime next week.

North Korea had made the money's release a main condition for its disarmament, and used the financial dispute as a reason to stay away from six-party nuclear talks _ involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S. _ for more than a year, during which it conducted its first-ever nuclear test explosion in October.

Hill said Saturday that talks could begin before the reactor was fully shut down.

"I would expect it to happen soon after shutdown begins," Hill said, adding the exact timing depended on scheduling by the host nation, China.

KCNA said that during Hill's trip, "both sides shared the views that they would start implementing the (February) agreement on the premise that the issue of the
remittance of the funds is finally settled."

North Korea is to ultimately get aid worth 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil and other political concessions after it fully disables the reactor.

KCNA also said the two sides would seek to hold a meeting in early August of foreign ministers from the six nations in the nuclear talks on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in the Philippines.

We let them keep the spoils, N.Korea - 1, U.S. - 0. We began the aid package, N.Korea - 1, U.S. - 0. We haven't had any shutdown, au contraire, there has been a nuclear test though of a dubious nature, N.Korea - 1, U.S. - 0. We are resuming talks without dismantling occurring, N.Korea - 1, U.S. - 0.

Can't wait to hear what the idiots call this new item in N.Korea's goody bag. If they stay true to form, Victory. At least, on the surface, nobody died.

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