Short American Century

Back on April 5, I posted about my concerns with the erratic behavior of Kim Jon Un.  Like David Horsey, I doubted that he could actually blow up Los Angeles, but he certainly could make a mess of that part of the world.  His behavior hasn't moderated since then, but I think there's still some danger.  It's just that my opinion has moderated a little.  Here's David Horsey's updated column on the issue.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems like a fictional character out of a satirical doomsday movie -- maybe a sequel to “Dr. Strangelove.” That fact that this immature brat and his gaggle of grim, aging generals actually rule a country and have the capacity to disturb the international order seems absurd in an era of global interdependence.

In the 21stcentury, humankind should have moved beyond this, but apparently we need a few more centuries of progress before all countries are led by comparatively rational, democratically elected leaders -– or at least by boring, one-party bureaucrats whose main goal is to preserve stability and promote economic growth.

Kim is a throwback to medieval times when young, cocky princes claimed a divine right to lord it over defenseless peasants. The only reason those princes could claim that power, in truth, was because they were surrounded by troops of big guys with swords, armor and horses with a license to kill any peasant who complained too loudly. It really had nothing to do with God’s blessing and everything to do with which family was ruthless enough to take from the poor and make themselves rich. ...

Little Kim’s belligerent threat to start a thermonuclear war that would consume South Korea, Japan and various outposts of the United States is the tough talk of a tyrant in the ancient mold. But Kim is all bluff. He does not have the bombs or the missiles to carry out his threats. His country is a geopolitical pipsqueak and an economic charity case. If the real world powers, China and the United States, chose to make it happen, his regime could be snuffed out.   [Emphasis added]

In my earlier post, I suggested that the US would have to work with the UN to rein Bratty L'il Kim in.  I still believe it will take diplomacy, but not necessarily though the UN.  We will have to partner with China.  Kim Jon Un is part of that country's sphere of influence.  And that is where my thoughts moved to.

Do you remember 13 years ago when Dick Cheney and his Merry Band of NeoConservatives took office?  Their philosophy was that since the fall of the Soviet Union, the US was the only world power and could do whatever it wanted to.  That philosophy was detailed in their Program for the New American Century ("PNAC").  And with that theoretical framework, they justified wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, paid for off-budget by loans from China.  All they needed was a "Pearl Harbor" event, which they got on 9/11, and they were off.

At the same time, our corporate behemoths began shifting jobs and increasing business ties with our largest creditor until now we are no longer the "only world power."  Shortest damned century on record!

So now we have to rely on the other world power to rein in Kim so that there is no conflagration involving South Korea.  I'm not too comfortable with that notion.

Not So Funny

(Click on image to enlarge and then please return.)

No week is complete without a Horsey cartoon and column.  Unfortunately, this edition is a deadly serious one and has Mr. Horsey very concerned, as we all should be.

Kim Jong Un is an absurdly comical figure. If he were not holding the fate of millions of people in his hands, the North Korean dictator would provide us all with nothing but laughs.

He runs a country that, thanks to the ruinous communist policies of his father and grandfather, is an economic basket case where mass starvation is always as close as tomorrow.

He has almost no friends in the world, except for the similarly outcast nutcases that run Iran. His closest allies, the Chinese, are so disgusted with him that they have signed on to United Nations sanctions against his country.

And yet, Kim acts as if he is master of a mighty nation, not king of a hermit kingdom that survives only by imprisoning its people in an Orwellian alternative reality. ...

It has always been assumed that North Korean leaders rattled sabers now and then simply to solidify their own power by stirring up the patriotic passions of their captive people. As warlike as they may have sounded, the old leaders generally did not seem crazy enough to provoke a war with the United States in which their regime would almost certainly be toppled.

The new Kim, surrounded by a huge army and a horde of sycophants, may not understand the precariousness of his position. Living amid a Stalinist fantasy as he does, Kim might actually think war would be a glorious fulfillment of his own exalted purpose on the planet, instead of a horrific, blood-soaked end to his family’s wicked dynasty.
It would be gratifying to see the pudgy-faced punk of Pyongyang meet an ignominious end. Unfortunately, it is not likely to happen without a cruel war that would be disastrous for Koreans, both North and South.   [Emphasis added]

It is that last sentence quoted that is so devastating.  In the past, the war-like tirades usually issued when North Korea wanted something:  food for its starving citizens, even just a little attention from the rest of the world.  Kim Jong Un seems to be operating under a different agenda, one that could provoke serious devastation to both Koreas and instability in that region.

Some really sophisticated diplomatic maneuvering is going to be required by the rest of the world, particularly by the US.  Secretary of State Kerry and Defense Secretary Hagel will have to make it clear to "the new Kim" that in the real world, there is no way he can prevail.  Member nations of the United Nations will also have to be convinced to bring diplomatic pressure on the current North Korean regime.

And, somehow, we will have to make certain that the wacky base of the Republican Party doesn't take up the war chant I fear will emanate shortly.

Il Timed Infantilism

While he's rattling the usual sabers and convicting reporters of doing their job, the shrinking leader of North Korea has at least finally admitted that he's not immortal. This exceeding outsider among world leaders is emitting great volumes of his usual pronouncements while making nice with the military, to all appearances purposefully positioning a son to take over.

Another, latest, blow has landed, with the isolated nation threatening traffic in waters it considers under its control, while two young reporters have received harsh sentences for venturing too close to its closed borders.

North Korea has warned fishermen and boat captains to stay away from the country's east coast, Japan's coast guard said Monday, in another sign the communist regime is planning to fire more missiles after its recent nuclear test.

Pyongyang also threatened Monday to retaliate with a "super hard-line" response if sanctions were imposed.

North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Pyongyang "has made clear many times that we will consider any sanction a declaration of war and will take due corresponding self-defense measures." The commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate.

The U.N. Security Council has been discussing imposing sanctions against the North in response to its May 25 nuclear test, while Washington considers introducing its own financial sanctions.
(snip)
On Monday, Pyongyang, handed down 12-year prison sentences to two U.S. journalists, convicting them of unspecified hostility toward the country and illegally crossing the border. The reporters were arrested March 17 near the North's border with China while researching a story.

The only action taken by the previous maladministration seems to have been cutting the cord in Macau, where the country has been producing its own currency for awhile. From that place, the admission from the eldest, errant, son (recently finally removed from succession plans)comes.

The eldest son of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il appears to have confirmed reports his younger brother has been designated the country's next leader.

Kim Jong-nam, when asked by Japanese broadcaster NTV about whether Kim Jong-un would succeed his father, said: "I think so. I hear this news by media".

Kim Jong-nam, who denied reports he had defected, said he could not remember the last time he spoke to his father.

South Korean media last week said Kim Jong-un had been designated to succeed.

In the interview, which NTV said was conducted in Macau, Kim Jong-nam, 37, said in English: "The appointment of a successor is totally my father's decision.

"He makes his decisions so he doesn't need to talk to me or talk to another person."

The outsider of world regimes is a sad, bothersome remnant of days when rule was all in the family. Spain will not be invading England again to claim its due after the kind assassinates his Spanish-born wife, and Shakespearean dramas won't be inspired by family feuds that topple heirarchies. While this is an improvement in many ways, we do have to reflect that family concern for a country's well-being could be good in instances when an elected leader proves to be daft and/or dysfunctional.

But I digress.

Sadly, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, U.S. relations with N.Korea were actually making progress. We cannot know what difference it would have made if the adults had remained in charge, rather than the maladministration irrevocably undermining diplomatic efforts by blustering about 'axis of evil' attitude problems. That we have no existing channels for dealing with a deteriorating world leader - who appears to be paving his son's way by giving his military free hand in world affairs - verges on disastrous.

The results of the infantile maladministration's bad handling of absolutely everything has brought world threat to a precipice, and it will take good work with little predictable by way of results to bring off a good ending.

This is a hard lesson in the importance of electing thoughtful, even responsible, world leaders.

An Old Dog Still Has Teeth

I read an op-ed piece in yesterday's Sacramento Bee written by Eugene Robinson (who usually publishes in the Washington Post). Mr. Robinson reminds us that while George W. Bush is in the twilight of his term in office, there's plenty of mischief he can still get into, and all signs point to the determination to do so.

George W. Bush's presidency seems exhausted and irrelevant, but that's a dangerous illusion. The Decider remains in command of the world's most advanced and powerful military force, and he has just a few months to tie up what he might consider loose ends – a thought sobering enough to send Amy Winehouse to rehab.

We can only hope he considers his "denuclearization" agreement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il a sufficient legacy. Assuming the deal keeps North Korea from making more nuclear weapons, Bush will be 1-for-3 in dealing with his Axis of Evil. (If you ignore the fact that Pyongyang went nuclear on Bush's watch, that is.) As for the other Evils, we know the story: Iraq is a bloody quagmire that has claimed more than 4,000 American lives, and Iran is more powerful than at any time since the fall of the shah. Bush's legacy on the world stage is defined by Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, secret CIA prisons and waterboarding. His successor will face an enormous task restoring America's image and moral standing.


Now, while Ruth will vehemently dispute that the North Korean agreement was a good thing, at least the administration accomplished something without bombs or the threat of bombs. At least they used what verbal skills they possess (and I happen to think Chris Hill is one of our better negotiators at State, no matter who the president is), without lacing their words with that ominous phrase, "All options are on the table."

Mr. Robinson's point, however, is that Bush can still muck things up for the next administration in two primary areas: Iraq and Iran.

It's not hard to fathom the ominous, potentially catastrophic implications of a U.S. attack on Iran's enrichment plants and other nuclear installations. Meanwhile, on another front, Bush is working as hard as he can to cement an agreement on the long-term status of U.S. forces in Iraq before the new president takes office. The basic issue being negotiated appears to be whether the United States military will retain much of the authority and responsibility of an occupying power, even as it ostensibly surrenders control to the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi government is stalling on the agreement the Bush White House wants, and with good reason. It knows that Mr. Bush is a lame duck, and the next administration, whether headed by Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, will have to start from scratch anyway. Besides, what is the White House going to do about it? Bomb Iraq? Again?

Iran, on the other hand, is a different story. Many in the White House are just itching for another fight, and with a huge chunk of our military already next door, taking the next step along the axis looks to be a natural. The White House has admitted that it has committed several hundred millions of dollars towards infiltrating and undermining the current Iranian government. The infiltrators are also presumably gathering intelligence on the nuclear program, including the location of target sites.

Will that be Mr. Bush's "October Surprise"? His way of saying "So long, suckers!" It's more probable than not, unfortunately, because this Congress has made it so abundantly clear that they will do nothing to stop the madness in any way.

I am not optimistic.

198 days is a long time.

Ongoing Exercise In Irresponsibility

That same North Korea that has not accepted designation yet as a member of the occupied White House's "axis of evil" continues to make its attempts at world domination an exercise in futility. More and more, the axis looks like the one on a hamster wheel, and the administration runs madly around it not even producing energy.

The evil axian nation was gotten to agree to issue an enumeration of its nuclear facilities by the end of 2007. That didn't happen.

North Korea will hand over a long-delayed report of its nuclear activities on June 26 in a step towards disarmament, Kyodo news agency said in a report from Beijing on Monday, citing sources close to six-party talks on the issue.

In response, the United States will begin the process of removing Pyongyang from a list of nations Washington sees as sponsors of terrorism, the report said, a move that would ease trade sanctions.

I distinctly hear the sound of a hamster wheel going whirling madly around, a wheel the worst administration ever is madly trying to make look like progress. Of course, previous pronouncements of the N.Koreans have been a mockery of the U.S., and showed the disdain in which it is held.

The U.S. previously believed that North Korea had received HEU technology from Pakistan, but found, based on its analysis of the North Korean documents, that North Korea tried to develop the technology on its own.

In this regard, in her speech she delivered at the Heritage Foundation last Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "As we’ve gotten deeper into the process, we’ve been troubled by additional information about North Korea’s uranium enrichment capability... And this information has reaffirmed skepticism about dealing with North Korea."

Such skepticism was raised before North Korea makes its nuclear declaration. It will likely remain a bone of contention in connection with the North's future HEU development.

Meanwhile, in the daily briefing last Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "We have indications that it (North Korea's nuclear declaration) will be soon... I’ll give you one other hint here, is we do not yet have another head of delegation -- meeting scheduled. And presumably, that would be the venue in which the North Koreans would hand over to the Chinese a declaration."

Until an administration that it respects, that can work within the world community, is at the U.S. helm, there will be no real goals reached, and N. Korea's leaders are among the majority of world leaders who show their recognition of this.

Only the totally blind members of the executive branch of the U.S. fail to recognize and act on this reality.

Failure Defined as Success

The occupied White House is saying 'uncle' to N. Korea. With all the news focused on il Papa and 'bitter' quotes, this is getting very little play. Having fumbled entirely in trying to threaten the 'dear Leader' into making concessions, the cretin in chief has decided to proceed without them. No report will be forthcoming about existing nuclear facilities, a condition that N.Korea had agreed to but has not kept, due at the end of 2007. The U.S., however, will remove N.Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and exempted from the Trading With The Enemy Act.

Washington says it is easing demands on North Korea to try to resolve an impasse over a disarmament deal.

The US indicated the North's required declaration of its nuclear activities may not contain everything about past programmes and may not be made public.

But a top US adviser on the issue, Dennis Wilder, insisted that "no-one has let them off the hook".

The declaration is a key part of a deal, stalled since late 2007, to end Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
(snip)
Mr Wilder admitted proliferation issues would be "handled in a different manner".

Saying there was still room for "caution and scepticism", US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "This is a diplomatic matter and not everything in diplomacy is public."

Aha! the secret plan is working if you clap hard enough. The usual suspects have totally failed at diplomacy, from a beginning that saw our leader calling N.Korea part of his 'axis of evil'. Now we are declaring a victory that contradicts the terms we set for such a victory.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared this week to promise that U.S. officials would reimpose sanctions if they found that North Korea had not been truthful about its activities under the agreement.

"There is still reason for caution and skepticism," Rice told reporters Thursday. "We are at the beginning of a very complex process, not the end."

The flurry of activity points to just how little progress has been made, despite an enormous commitment of U.S. time and effort, since a six-nation deal on denuclearization was signed Feb. 17, 2007.

U.S. officials have said the process would lead to Pyongyang's surrender of its nuclear facilities and materials produced since a deal reached under former President Clinton fell apart in 2002.

So far, however, neither side has risked much on the deal.

The North Koreans have frozen their plutonium production program, centered at a dilapidated reactor at Yongbyon. The United States agreed to reward the impoverished regime with fuel oil.

But the 50,000 tons included in the deal is a relatively small amount and has been provided by other countries.

The nuclear proliferation that was allowed for India but forbidden for N.Korea proceeds apace. Our agents of the version of diplomacy practiced in the worst administration ever - just say fine, that works for me, and move on. What's important? seemingly getting out of the White House and leaving yet another mess to the next occupant.

*****************************************************

Other items avoiding much play in the press this week while they followed candidates about collecting trivia are:

Since 2004, the Pentagon has spent roughly $16 billion annually to maintain and modernize the military's business systems, but most are as unreliable as ever—even as the surge in defense spending is creating more room for error. The basic defense budget for 2007 was $439.3 billion, up 48 percent from 2001, excluding the vast additional sums appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to federal regulators and current and former Pentagon officials, the accounting process is so obsolete and error prone that it's virtually impossible to tell where much of this money ends up. While the department's brass has made a few patchwork improvements, billions are still unaccounted for. The problem is so deeply rooted that, 18 years after Congress required major federal agencies to be audited, the Pentagon still can't be.

and

Right now, the world has plenty of oil. Inventories are strong and industrial activity in the U.S. is slackening. Yet the price has risen, pushed up by the decline of the dollar and the eagerness of investors or speculators--hedge funds, pension funds and every other type of fund.

The Dow Jones industrial average is 1,700 points below its 2007 peak and the stock market remains nervous and volatile. The real estate downturn and the problems with mortgage-backed securities have scared off investors. The "smart money" is now moving into oil--just as it has done with gold.
(snip)
My first suggestion is that we first straighten out our own financial house. I propose the old cure: that we stop spending more than we take in, and that we balance the budget. Our national debt is now $9 trillion and the annual interest payments are more than $400 billion.

If this means drastic spending cuts and higher taxes, so be it. This is an economic crisis. Heck, President Clinton was able to balance the budget.

Next, we need to do something about the speculation in oil. Many experts tell us that we should do nothing, and that whatever steps we take will make things worse. They could be correct. We are in uncharted territory.

A stiff tax on oil profits from speculation sounds leftist, but I think it is something we should consider. Another option is a high margin requirement on the purchase of oil futures.

and

The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it restricted states' ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable, lawyers from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Friday.

The ruling strengthens the hand of at least 22 states, including Washington, that provide such coverage or want to do so. It also significantly reduces the chance that the new policy can be put into effect before President Bush leaves office in nine months.

The schools, health programs and infrastructure crumble, but no one called them 'bitter' so no attention from the press. Perhaps they'll become elitist and get some needed attention.

That Evil Empire

It's been four months now since the evil N. Korea was committed to give the occupied White House a description of its nuclear facilities and projects. Bet I don't need to tell you it hasn't happened. That we are going back to the table with the country that has not lain down and said "Uncle" to this bunch of diplomatic failures should be treated as it is, with skepticism, even by the war criminals themselves.

The ongoing ineffectual effort of this cabal to bring N. Korea to heel has been rather symptomatic of how it has tried to deal in cowboy fashion with the evil empire rogue state, and been out-cowboyed, before.

Senior U.S. and North Korean negotiators will meet in Singapore on Tuesday to discuss the stalled effort to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

The State Department played down expectations for the talks between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill and North Korea's Kim Kye-gwan, saying they were not expected to produce North Korea's overdue declaration of its nuclear programs.

"Everybody take a deep breath. Chris will not be coming home with a declaration in his briefcase or his suitcase. This is part of a continuing process," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

"Certainly we hope to make continued progress on it but I am not led to believe that there is any reason to suspect that this is a decisive point in those discussions," Casey added.

Earlier Casey and other U.S. officials had said they expected the meeting to take place on Monday.

"My expectations for this meeting ... are that they will go to Singapore, they will meet, they will discuss the declaration and then they will leave," Casey said. "We do not anticipate that there will be any final resolution of the issues related to the declaration at this meeting.

A 2005 accord under which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits has been bogged down by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programs by the end of last year. (Emphasis added.)

Somehow I suspect that at least one textbook in how not to deal with unfriendly nations has already been begun.

By starting out truculent, the cretin in chief set the tone for what he cannot now achieve, a peace that means a great deal to this country. His oath to protect this country has been broken in this way, among so many ways.

More Defeats from N. Korea

Happy Birthday, Kim Jong-Il. You didn't hear the news reports about that? Must be because once again, the occupied White House is embarrassed that they are getting nowhere with the nuclear disarmament effort, despite their folding on one step after another to get the little country to perform what we want them to.

As posted here before, the N. Korean gestures toward nuclear restraint - something the administration has tried gaining - have been MIA lately. The lack of respect from the country our cretin in chief included in the "Axis of Evil" has been palpable for some time.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill sought to put the best face on failing nuclear talks with North Korea, which has refused to provide a full and complete accounting of its past nuclear activities.

“We are continuing to work on that," Hill told a Senate hearing Feb. 6. "I don't want to make bets about a game that I'm playing in, but we have reason to believe that we can make progress. And while we do, we are not at all happy that we've missed our deadline, that is Dec. 31, [but] we believe it's worth continuing to work on this.”

Hill said he failed to present a letter from President Bush directly to North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Il and instead handed it to a Foreign Ministry official. “I asked if I could deliver this in person. I was told that this was not possible, and they directed me to the foreign minister. So I delivered it to the foreign minister prior to my departure,” he said.

The failure was a major snub by North Korea, which refused to allow the special envoy to meet the head of state.

Following strict U.S. policy, Hill, said any U.S. de-listing of North Korea as a terrorist and enemy state “will depend, of course on the DPRK’s fulfillment of its second phase commitments on providing a complete and correct declaration, and disabling its nuclear facilities, as well as on the satisfaction of the legal requirements.”

In addition to its not giving details on its uranium enrichment, Hill said there is also a likely discrepancy in North Korean plutonium produced, as much as 20 kilograms, enough for five nuclear bombs.

Hill also said North Korea purchased centrifuges from Pakistan and planned to reverse engineer them.

“They purchased less than two dozen centrifuges. And the purpose would be to replicate them and to build some 2,000 or 3,000 centrifuges. So certainly, in order to get the basic design of the centrifuge, they had to get it from this A.Q. Khan network. So our very strong belief is that they were successful in getting that,” he said.

As is everywhere evident, the world is waiting for the U.S. to replace its failed regime. No one wants another faked punt from the gang that can't shoot straight.

Don't Look Now

[Note: This post is actually by Ruth, but she is having some very odd computer problems, so I'm putting it up for her.]

Remember the agreement with North Korea that the occupied White House was touting for a big success not so long ago? As I noted recently, hey, on December when PyongYang was supposed to produce a list of all its nuclear facilities, Nothing Happened. Except when Ms. Perino announced how disappointed we are that nothing was produced, North Korea replied that they had indeed produced a list. If you have noticed, Nothing since has been said.

Surprise, it seems that North Korea did indeed produce that list.

On Jan. 2, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the United States was still "waiting to hear" from the North. Pyongyang responded that the United States had its declaration. After some tail-chasing, it emerged that North Korea had quietly shared an initial declaration with the United States in November. According to media reports, this declaration stated that North Korea had a separated plutonium stockpile of 30 kilograms and denied that it had a uranium enrichment program.

If you are as astonished as I am that a communication of this importance was not taken any notice of, you too have yet to accept that we are in possession of a fully nonfunctional government.

Recently word got out that the cretin in chief is in the process of formulating an agreement with his puppet government in Iraq to establish our U.S. presence for an indeterminate period. Something tells me that agreement is about to join North Korea's list and emails relating to Valerie Plame's outing by the executive branch.

I do indeed wonder what else the worst administration ever is plowing under for us to fall over after they are gone. I know as well as you do that it will not be a nice surprise.

North Korea Ratcheting Back Up Its Nuclear Program

Ever more wonderful becomes the occupied White House posturing about successes in negotiating away the North Korean nuclear program. Today, the former Axis of Evil nation declared that it would be increasing that program - to defend against U.S. hostilities.

As I posted a few days ago, the deadline missed by North Korea received not even a shrug as the executive branch hoped its problems with nuance would just go away.

North Korea's state media warned Friday that the communist country would bolster its "war deterrent" to fend off what it alleged was a U.S. plot of nuclear war, as 100,000 people rallied in support of the government.

The country's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper claimed that the U.S. is modernizing its nuclear arsenal, but made no mention that North Korea missed a year-end deadline to declare all its nuclear programs under an international disarmament agreement.

"Our republic will continue to harden its war deterrent further in response to the U.S. stepping up its nuclear war moves," the paper said in a commentary, carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea often uses "deterrent," "war deterrent," or "nuclear deterrent" to refer to its nuclear weapons.

The U.S. has repeatedly stressed that it has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea, and would normalize relations with the North if it gave up its nuclear programs.

Pyongyang has promised to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for energy aid and political concessions. In October, it pledged to disable its nuclear facilities and issue a declaration on its atomic programs by the end of the year — in return for the equivalent of 1 million tons of oil from its partners in the six-way talks — the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

But the North missed the Dec. 31 deadline, and has not explained why.
(snip)
Also Friday, another North Korean newspaper, Minju Joson, said the country had no option but to slow the disablement work, because the U.S. and other negotiating counterparts delayed fulfilling their commitments to the communist nation.

A North Korean official made a similar claim last week.

"This shows that it is fully up to the U.S. and related countries whether the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula would be attained or not," the paper said in a commentary, also carried by KCNA.

The intelligence which has been lacking in conducting this country's foreign relations is every day more sorely needed. In a few weeks we will be only a year away from inaugurating a better executive - it would be impossible to find a worse one - on January 20, 2009.

Hopefully there will still be a world to have relations with.

No Respect for the U.S. from North Korea

The New Year is here, and to no one's surprise, North Korea ignored its deadline for producing a report on its facilities, in an agreement to shut down nuclear operations. With all attention focused on riots in Kenya over a stolen election and in Pakistan over the assassination of the candidate most likely to upset Musharraf's rule, you can be sure that our occupied White House is going to let it go for now. As I predicted earlier this year, our status is back to Cold War levels.

The great successes Condi Rice was touting just weeks ago are exactly what all the administration's posturings have amounted to - a sham.

As North Korea misses a key deadline to shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, Korea expert Aidan Foster-Carter explains why Pyongyang's prevarication has not provoked a stronger reaction.

Two months ago, hitherto comatose six-nation talks - both Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia - on the North Korean nuclear issue suddenly sprang to life.

A joint statement on 13 February created five separate working groups on various aspects, including more broadly towards diplomatic relations between North Korea and both the US and Japan.

Better yet, a previously on-off process (often more off than on) suddenly gave itself tight deadlines. The working groups were each to meet within a month, and duly did.

Above all North Korea committed to "shut down and seal for... eventual abandonment" its main nuclear site at Yongbyon within 60 days, i.e. by 14 April. Significantly, North Korea's own news agency called this closure a "temporary suspension".

In return, Pyongyang was promised aid equivalent to 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO), with a further 950,000 tons to follow once all its nuclear activities were fully declared and disabled.

Sceptics who doubted if Kim Jong-il would keep his word now feel vindicated. The date of 14 April came and went with no sign of Yongbyon being shuttered.

Yet US and other reaction was scarcely stronger than mild dismay and cajoling.

Washington's chief negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, merely accused North Korea of acting "lethargically" and warned that "[waiting] another month is not in my constitution".
(snip)
North Korea is on most counts a failed state. But it has the bomb, and Kim Jong-il can keep the world's sole superpower waiting while he collects his ill-gotten gains, in his own time.

It takes two to tangle. The bottom line is that a beleaguered US has decided not to have a crisis with North Korea.

The record of negotiations that the cretin in chief has finally allowed is dismal, and shows the effects on our standing as a nation, that no steps to enforce its agreements will be taken. Just as this group of war profiteers has proved no treaties, no conventions [such as the Geneva Conventions] that we have entered into have any hope of enforcement in the light of their ultimate war ambitions, so it has shown that it has no expectations of other nations in the matter of relations with this country.

As long as the present occupation of our White House continues, our influence is nil.

Going Back In Time and Place to Cold War Relations

Did you think this was going to be a nostalgia trip? Well, if Cold War relationships are to your taste, it is. Sec'y of State Rice has just called for 'activists' in Russia to start working against the Duma, in the interests of democracy. Can Cuba be next?

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the visiting delegation from the U.S. a really nasty surprise when he announced that he wasn't letting us put weapons into Eastern Europe on his doorstep without a fight.

Through his representative in the talks, Putin asked for a freeze on the fatuously named 'defense shield', and we refused to halt while we discussed the planned armament. Putin will travel to Iran next week, and further showed his disregard for U.S. foreign relations by pointing out through Lavrov, his delegate, that sanctions are not improving the prospects for Iran to eschew nuclear arms.

Way to go, Brownies of the executive branch. Cretin-1 announcing that he was seeing his soul sure has given Putin the measure of our diplomatic skills, and it would appear he thinks as much of them as do the North Koreans.

While the U.S. under the executive branch's belligerence gave up all the gains that President Clinton had made in relations with North Korea, recently an agreement has been reached that N. Korea will 'dismantle' its nuclear facilities and the U.S. will remove it from the "axis of evil' designation and lift sanctions. This has met with general skepticism from around the world. Of course, no definition of 'dismantling' has been given, and previous experience shows that meeting deadlines is not the practice of the late great 'evil axis' nation. We have already acceeded to demands from N.Korea to release the funds we had ordered held up in Macao because of rampant counterfeiting by the former evil axis land - and all the concessions we asked for in exchange were foregone. At that time, U.S. spokesman Christopher Hill thought we would begin talks "after shutdown begins." As we all know, the talks went on, and now we have ... N. Korea's word that this time it really, truly, for sure, will shut down its nuclear facilities.

The return to Cold War relationships has broken out with India, because the U.S. has offered to forget its former demand that nuclear powers join in the denuclearization agreement only if we can impose the conditions of that agreement on them. Of course, without inspection rights this is nothing but word games, but word games matter in these relationships. Indian opposition centers around the control exercised by the U.S., which would not allow testing by India although we would retain the option of running our own tests. A little matter of pride seems to be overlooked here by the usual war machine in the White House. The turmoil inside India is large enough that it is possible new elections may need to be held.

We made a lasting impression on a whole lot of nations recently too, by keeping our 'anti-dumping' penalties which are collected from other nations and then distributed to our domestic industries.

It goes on and on. The cabal in the White House gained its voters by appealing to the basest elements, the kind that Michelle Malkin has aroused to attack a horribly injured 12-year-old, the kind that claims Al Gore doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (which is probably sour anyway), the kind that wants detainees tortured, everyone's phone tapped and death penalties for those not 'lawyered-up' enough to avoid getting the penalty. This is not a nuanced base, remember, it is the one that wants to see the other side of every issue mugged. Appealing to the right calls for a show of nasty chauvinism. That's what we've got in foreign relations these days.

Welcome back to the era of Ugle Americanism. It's with us until January 20, 2009. I sure hope we all survive.

Don't Trust Lame Duck Crooks To Protect This Country

The value of a phrase that fits exactly is displayed by op-ed writer Jim Hoagland this morning, and I want to point it out.

Why has a secretive government addicted to power politics and flexing its military muscles abruptly turned to negotiations and peaceful compromise? And why is North Korea doing the same?

Give credit where it's due. Hoagland capsulizes here the confrontation between two irrational, sabre-rattling, comic-book character regimes, in Washington and in Pyongyang.

North Korea has made another round of promises, including the intention of totally giving up its nuclear weapon arsenal. In fact, it has given up the ground it took after the existing treaty Clinton had made with them was vacated by this cabal now occupying our White House. The acceptance of diplomacy as the ends to achieve its means is somewhat surprising to those who've watched them throw out strategy and replace it with belligerence, throw out character and replace it with menace.

This deepens the Washington end of this great strategic mystery: Why is President Bush accepting the promises of a regime he has regularly excoriated -- at a time when officials in his administration make a credible case that North Korea has just been caught helping Syria with nuclear technology?

North Korea's desperation as its economy implodes and its people starve is clearly part of the answer. Pyongyang's plight has helped U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill get an agreement that he believes can be verified and enforced. Timing is also everything for Bush, who is reaching for diplomatic successes before his presidency ends.

While all the words are the right ones, the background to this agreement, however, is one of really dubious acceptance. From BBC the other day, the report I heard placed practically no importance on the present situation. And through all of the reports runs the thread that each previous milestone has given way to yet another desertion of the plateau reached. With Pyongyang as with Washington, the character of the occupant of high office has been proved to be lacking. Their words are not believable.

The fact that North Korea has indicated it wants the U.S. instead of the U.N. to conduct the inspection of its nuclear facilities when it has announced conditions have been met brings a real element of doubt. The evasions of N.Korea seem now to be moving to incorporate a reliance on Cretin-1's need to keep up pretense as part of its own plans.

A U.S.-led inspection would have much more credibility in Washington, the North Koreans indicated. They also want to move quickly -- that is, while Bush is still in office and can presumably beat back Republican opposition to the agreement.

So says Hoagland. That is one factor. Another, however, has to be that N. Korea sees the desperation of this cabal to produce something it can call a 'victory' - and relies on them to gloss over any little nasty details that don't fit what it wants to project.

The White House has really so completely given up any moral or ethical ground to stand on, its nature is pretty generally acknowledged even by those favorite objects of ridicule, the pundits. One op-ed writer who really doesn't deserve to be demeaned by the title of 'pundit', Eugene Robinson, called the cretin in chief's babblings over vetoing SCHIP "Bush's Veto Lies".

Basing its hopes on the executive branch's needs, N. Korea can depend on them once again to betray the U.S. for any factor that gives them a chance at the Legacy they are trying to create.

North Korea can trust this cabal much more than U.S. citizens can.

Our Ms. Brooks: With Snarkitude

Usually, by Friday I'm ready for Rosa Brooks' column in the Los Angeles Times, but this week I was really ready. I was not disappointed.

Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of State, stunned reporters Wednesday by announcing that North Korea has agreed to disable its nuclear facilities -- and by attributing the breakthrough to a "a previously unknown but surprisingly effective" method of foreign relations recently discovered by U.S. officials, which Hill dubbed "diplomacy."

"This is a real first for us," Hill explained proudly. "And I won't pretend that the idea of using this 'diplomacy' technique didn't initially strike me as wacky. But so far, so good!"

In a written statement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice elaborated on Hill's announcement: "This is an exciting moment in U.S. foreign policy. Now that we have discovered this innovative new method, 'diplomacy,' our nation will no longer have to rely exclusively on more traditional forms of foreign relations such as mockery, insults and unilateral military action."

Not everyone agrees that diplomacy is "new." Professor Richard F. Burton III, William Moreson Chair of Ancient History at UC Berkeley, notes that the art of diplomacy was fairly well known to past civilizations, from China's Eastern Zhou dynasty (771-221 BC) to the U.S. administration of William Jefferson Clinton (AD 1993-2001). ...

White House insiders hint that not everyone is equally delighted by Hill's rediscovery of diplomacy. A senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was sharply critical: "Don't you think there's a reason our office has worked so hard to suppress knowledge of the art of diplomacy? In the wrong hands, diplomacy is flat-out dangerous. Imagine what would happen if all our enemies started using it!"

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton concurred: "You let these State Department dipsticks use diplomacy, even just for a few weeks, and the next thing you know they're promising to take North Korea off the list of terrorism sponsors in exchange for some piddling nuclear concessions. Keep that kind of thing up and there won't be anyone left in the 'axis of evil.' Then who are we supposed to bomb?"

I wonder if any of Ms. Brooks colleagues in the news biz will get it.

Another Round Goes to N.Korea

How boring, constantly to harp back to the same theme, and I do. North Korea was granted access to the funds we were holding because they were gained by counterfeit and fraud. Then they were going to shut down their nuclear facilities. Anyone else remember that one. That happened in June. Now we have test-firing of missiles that can reach South Korea.

North Korea is about to field an advanced short-range missile that has been tested successfully and will pose a new threat to South Korea, a departing U.S. Defense Department official said Friday.

Richard Lawless, at a final news conference after serving nearly five years as the Pentagon's top Asia policy official, said the new missile is more mobile and more accurate than the Scud missiles that already are targeting South Korea. Another concern is that the new missiles could be sold globally, he said.
(snip)
Much of the public attention on North Korea in recent years has been directed at an international effort to get the communist government to abandon its nuclear weapons program. On Friday, North Korea strongly suggested that it is willing to suspend operations at its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor as soon as it receives an initial shipment of energy aid promised as a reward for closing the facility.

Lawless said that if the North Koreans follow through on time and as promised, "that will be an indicator to the United States government that we have somebody that we can deal with." Even then, North Korea will need to address international concerns about its development of new missiles, he added.

He cited specifically North Korea's test-firing of three short-range missiles last week; Lawless said the missiles have a range of 120 to 140 kilometers, or about 75 to 85 miles, and were tested successfully.

Oh, well, there we go again. The U.S. has made a lot of announcements and pronouncements about what North Korea ought to be doing. We have deprived them of cognac and chocolates. Then we have done what they said to do, after we had said it was conditional on closing down their nuclear reactor at Pyongyang. (In answer to shrimplate about the September 23rd post, no, they can't shut off all nuclear facilities without hurting their populace further, the energy is needed.)

So I am adding to the scoreboard started September 23rd;
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.

And successful missile firings, N.Korea - 1, U.S. - 0.

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.

___

Not Making Nice And North Korea

For those of you not following the matter closely, this may come as a surprise. North Korea, of the 'Axis of Evil', has not shut down its nuclear facilities as it has agreed to. Yesterday was the date agreed to.

The February agreement hinged on the release of its funds held in Macao banks. The funds have been released, though there is some argument there. The funds were not released when they were supposed to be, and North Korea has said there is not the access they preferred.

A nuclear disarmament deal is on the verge of being crippled on Thursday, with North Korea falling short of taking steps for denuclearization just a couple of days ahead of the weekend deadline amid a dispute over the release of its funds frozen at a Macau bank.

The North's US$25 million held at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) has been available to access by the North Korean holders since Tuesday, when Macau's financial authorities decided to "unblock" the funds.

"I think we have come to a very important juncture which is we consider this BDA matter to be really resolved," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Washington's chief nuclear negotiator, told reporters in Seoul Wednesday.

"Now the DPRK needs to assess the information and presumably check with their bankers to see their access to the accounts," Hill said, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.S. diplomat is on a three-nation trip that will also take him to China. He has extended by one day his visit to Seoul that was to end Thursday. Many believe he extended his trip because his hope to arrange a meeting with his North Korean counterparts in Beijing was not realized.

Seoul and Washington are doing everything to prepare a soft landing should the Saturday deadline for the North to shut down its nuclear facilities be missed. But they both agree it will put the overall schedule of disabling the North's nuclear facilities off track unless changes start to take place on ground before the deadline.

Under the nuclear agreement signed in Beijing on Feb. 13, North Korea has to shut down its key nuclear facilities, including its only operational 5-megawatt reactor, and have the closure verified by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors in 60 days, which is this Saturday.

Foreign Minister Song Min-soon tried to put as little weight as possible on the importance of meeting the deadline, saying a missed deadline means little as long as North Korea has the will to see the agreement through and that it does.

"What is important is not whether the (deadline) date expires or not, but whether we can firmly implement the measures and move on to the next phase based on that," Song told a regular press briefing Wednesday.

"The desirable thing is (for the initial denuclearization measures to be) implemented before April 14. The countries are doing their utmost to this end," he added.

Others are less optimistic as a missed deadline would inevitably lead to a delay in a second -- and more important -- phase of the Feb. 13 agreement, under which the North is called to disable its nuclear facilities and declare a complete list of all its nuclear programs in exchange for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

The energy-for-denuclearization deal does not state an end date for the second disablement phase, but the top U.S. nuclear envoy has expressed hope to draw up a timeline "that will get us through disablement in this calendar year in 2007."
"Obviously the (60-day) deadline is important. We set up the deadline for a purpose," Hill said Tuesday.

"Clearly, if we don't get denuclearization, we are going to have problems on other tracks as well."
U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed Thursday that they have yet to hear any response from North Korea on the Macanese financial authorities' decision.

Chun Yung-woo, Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, said it "could take a few days" for North Korea to realize the funds are now available, without offering a view on whether the communist state would consider the funds' availability as a resolution of the banking issue.

"It's time for North Korea to move. Before North Korea moves, there's nothing we can do," the South Korean told reporters after a near two-hour meeting with his U.S. counterpart Hill at a Seoul hotel.

North Korea had previously demanded the money be released to it via an account at a Chinese bank, a transaction that would have proved to North Korea that it funds can still move freely within the international banking system.

Washington has apparently failed to arrange the proposed transaction due to what it had called "minor technical problems."

Discussions to set a timeline for the disablement phase have yet to take place as North Korea walked out of the six-nation nuclear talks held in Beijing last month, demanding resolution of the BDA issue.

I don't like to post long quotes like this, but you will not see this in your local news. A South Korean negotiator came to D.C. today to talk about this in the U.S.

You may see a reference to that in your local news. But the nuclear facilities are buzzing along merrily. We haven't impressed North Korea that we are doing our part, and since the present maladministration has attacked them without provocation by naming them as part of the "Axis of Evil", there has been no inclination on their part to make nice with us. Unsurprisingly, attacking a country that has not been on the offense against us is not a smart thing to do, and occasions real consequences.

Round One Goes to North Korea

Today the U.S. decided that funds frozen in Macao are not so bad after all and allowed the six party negotiations to proceed. North Korean funds had been frozen because evidence pointed to those monies' being ill-gotten gains from perpetual copyright violation and outright counterfeiting activities.

Until now, North Korea had declared it would not keep its end of the nuclear agreement by shutting down its weapons facility until the funds were unfrozen. Now that's supposed to happen. So the negotiations will not come to a screeching halt today. And the $95 million pledged to help N.Korea out of the hole its dug for itself is still alive and well, while inspectors will not be allowed until the negotiations are completed. At present, the inspection consists of watching steam rising from the facility , and the steam is continuing. Are you laughing out loud yet?

US authorities on Monday agreed to release $25m in North Korean funds that had been frozen at a bank in Macao, resolving a major sticking point to the six-party talks aimed at Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

Daniel Glaser, US deputy assistant treasury secretary, said the funds would first be transferred from Macao's Banco Delta Asia to a North Korean account at the Bank of China in Beijing.

Mr Glaser said the funds would then be used for humanitarian and education causes in North Korea and "solely for the betterment of the North Korean people". He said Pyongyang officials had proposed the solution, and made assurances the funds would be used for such social services.

The announcement came just hours before the latest round of the six-party talks started in Beijing, and is likely to pave the way for major progress towards the dismantlement of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

Pyongyang's main envoy said on at the weekend in Beijing that North Korea would not close its main reactor until the financial matter was resolved.

The dismantlement of Yongbyon, the first step outlined in the landmark February 13th denuclearisation agreement, will be the focus at this round of the talks, which involve the US, Japan, China, Russia and the two Koreas.

The February agreement stated that North Korea had 60 days to close Yongbyon and a plutonium processing plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency is in charge of verifying the process.

In exchange, Pyongyang was promised energy and economic aid, and a process to start normalising relations with the US and Japan.

The US Treasury froze the North Korean funds at BDA in late 2005, accusing the Macao bank had helped North Korea with money laundering, counterfeiting and financing weapons of mass destruction.

The move, which largely hamstrung North Korea's international banking capabilities, prompted Pyongyang to quit the international talks.

Christopher Hill, the main US envoy to the talks, has said repeatedly in recent days the financial dispute would not stall the nuclear talks.

Mr Hill said at the weekend the parties were now on a "tight deadline" to discuss the specifics of nuclear dismantlement. "There's many ways you can disable these facilities," he said. "I think we'll get through this."

However Wu Dawei, China's lead diplomat for the talks, said negotiations still faced "a lot of difficulties and obstacles".

It has been an ongoing negotiation point that the U.S. would make sure Kim Il Jong wouldn't get his brandy and movies if he didn't close down the nuclear weapon manufacturing. Now we're being really savvy, allowing the funds claimed to be gained by illegal activities to go for humanitarian ends - reminiscent of the Oil for Food Program of recent ill repute in Iraq.

Reports from neighbors indicate that the nuclear facility remains operational, although North Korea has announced that it has taken preliminary steps for its shutdown.

Until the U.S. recently came 'off its high horse' and quite claiming that it would not negotiate with N.Korea, of course, even these concessions weren't happening.

It's encouraging that the U.S. is negotiating to keep nuclear conflict from becoming the next step in our international relations. It would not appear that we're 'winning' unless the mere fact that we are keeping the negotiations alive is considered.

For this maladministration, that is an advance in negotiating skill.

Is That One Out Of Two, Three or More?

Talk about Inconvenient; the administration has changed its mind. On the brink of inspectors being allowed into North Korea, okay, they admit it, this member of the Evil Axis doesn't really have the nukes.

If anyone isn't about to explode at this misuse of the role of intelligence, or lack thereof, you need to re-read the above. Getting caught lacking nukes happened most recently in March of 2003 to Iraq, in an armed invasion.

This country is making such a fool of itself with the cretin in chief at the helm that the intelligence community has given up all pretense of credibility. This latest admission simply confirms what the recent incident of 'findings' of Iranian arms supplies to 'insurgents' in Iraq suggested. The maladministration has taken control of intelligence, and it is no longer operative. Propaganda for the purpose of incitement to war is now the object of news releases from the 'intelligence' community. No further belief in it is justifiable.

The NYT hopes that the administration's candor stems from an understanding of "how dangerous and counterproductive it is to hype intelligence," but bets that the admission is coming now because "Pyongyang has agreed to readmit nuclear inspectors -- who probably won't be able to find the active uranium enrichment program the administration has been alleging for more than four years".

The job of reporting news is something a newspaper would take seriously, no surprises there. Of course, if the object of your reporting is to sell your product, the news can be a serious hindrance. So:

WSJ decries the reversal, calling the move "bizarre" given the "volumes of public evidence that North Korea's uranium-enrichment program is very real."

You gotta love the WSJ essentially begging the maladministration to keep crying wolf. Since they bought the false news hook, line, and sinker, they need the WH to back up their role in promulgating lies.

Fellas, it's over. White House 'news' is lies. They got caught, again, with their pants down.

White is black.

From Wikipedia on 1984;
The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.

Baby Steps For North Korea

Under the accord reached yesterday with North Korea, in return for 50,000 tons of fuel oil in energy assistance, the reactor at Yongbyon will be shut down and international inspectors will be allowed supervision of the shutting down. Banking disputes with the U.S. will be 'resolved' and talks begun for normalization of relations with the U.S. The nuclear weaponry and nuclear stockpile developed over the past six years will not be affected, nor will any facilities other than the one at Yongbyon.

The drawback is that North Korea keeps, for now, the weapons and plutonium stockpile it has amassed. Also, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged yesterday, the first real test of whether dictator Kim Jong Il will give up his nukes lies in a less clearly defined future. According to the plan, North Korea is to permanently disable the Yongbyon facilities and provide a "complete declaration of all nuclear programs" in exchange for the equivalent of 950,000 more barrels of oil. How and when it will accomplish the disablement, how its disclosure will be verified and what else it might receive in exchange remain to be worked out; among the many difficulties is the North's refusal to acknowledge a secret uranium enrichment program. As Ms. Rice said, those steps would be "a sign that the North Koreans may, in fact, be ready to make a strategic choice" to give up nuclear weapons.

It is really encouraging that this administration has actually stuck to a bargaining process that has resulted in a first step. Future energy gifts will require further steps toward disarming, and North Korea has taken a first small step toward accomodating the world of relationships which it has eschewed for so many years. That the people of this isolated country will progress toward better lives is truly praiseworthy.

I choose to be encouraged that its recent defeats, and hope that it can improve the GOP's chances for future power, are pushing this White House to progress from its former hoodlum-like methods, toward a mature and reasonable image. And I applaud this development. Our position in world affairs has sunk so low that absolutely no one believes the administration's claims, as in its recent attempts to convince the world at large that Iran is aggravating the war in Iraq.

It is extremely hazardous to our future that the U.S. has sunk so low in world opinion. Under an administration that has proved its unreliability by attacking another country without any provocation, and creating a ruse for doing so that has been thoroughly discredited, this country has little reputation to rely on for dependability.

Abroad, the agreement with Korea is received with great skepticism, and Japan refuses to enter into the gifting part of it at all.

One area of uncertainty is whether North Korea has a highly enriched uranium program as alleged by Washington. North Korea has not acknowledged the existence of such a program. Highly enriched uranium can be the fissile material for nuclear weapons and its production can be much harder to detect than plutonium refinement.
******************************************************
Japan will not join in giving aid to North Korea because of past abductions of its nationals by Pyongyang's agents, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo.

That from the New Zealand Herald. This from the Globe and Mail:

A landmark agreement yesterday by North Korea to shut down its chief nuclear reactor and allow international inspections of the site is likely to be beset by a slew of difficulties, from convincing the Communist country's reclusive leaders to abide by their commitments to verifying compliance, experts said.

Washington's allegations have been too generally shady to be accepted by the world. What if we are really threatened? It would appear that the present inability to convince our fellow nations of being trustworthy is a worrisome deterrent to our ability to negotiate with the world.

North Korea may keep its bargain. It does not have a history of doing so.

The U.S. may be inclined to work toward world peace. It does not have a history of doing so.