Posted on 05/18/2007 4:48:42 AM PDT by Brilliant
Over a month has passed since sweetness and light were due to break out on the Korean Peninsula. On Feb. 13, the Six-Party Talks in Beijing ratified a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and North Korea, providing for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs. The first step, 60 days after ratification, was to be that North Korea "will shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment" the Yongbyon nuclear facility, and readmit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Other steps were to follow, but the first move was unequivocally to be made by Pyongyang. The 60 days came and went, and indeed, another 35 days have come and gone. No IAEA inspectors have been readmitted, and not even Pyongyang claims that it has "shut down" Yongbyon.
Instead, observers -- especially Iran and other nuclear weapons aspirants -- have witnessed embarrassing U.S. weakness on a supposedly unrelated issue, unmentioned in the Feb. 13 agreement. That issue involves North Korea's widely publicized demand that approximately $25 million frozen in Macau-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) accounts be released and transferred to Pyongyang. The funds came from North Korean counterfeiting of U.S. currency, money laundering and other fraudulent activities uncovered by a U.S. Treasury investigation begun in 2003. The accounts were frozen in 2005 and the BDA was promptly put on Treasury's blacklist for illicit activity...
How these issues play out will have ramifications far beyond North Korea, particularly for Iran. Some say the Bush administration entered the Feb. 13 deal because it desperately needed a success. One thing is for certain: It does not need a failure. The president can easily extricate himself from the deal, just based on North Korea's actions to date. He should take the first opportunity to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Did anyone expect this to work?
*Ping*
Not even Madeline Albright.
save
Yes, the same people that believe that a house of cards would be strong enough to withstand a light rainstorm... you know.. liberals. The same fools who believes NK when they said they wouldn’t build nuclear weaponry if we’d just give them a few $Billion.
Has the 25 mil already been paid to the NK’s? If so, then Kim’s gotten what he wanted and can now tell the rest of the world to stuff it.
He should, but he won't. He's too busy making failure into a tradition.
As far as the DPRK goes, they're done with President Bush. They can stall him for the next year and a half as easily as they could an afternoon. Kim Jong Il has successfully weathered 8 years of tough talking and confrontation, and looks forward to a cozy run against 8 years of a Democrat that knows how to play ball.
Is anyone surprised?
You are absolutely right. U.S. Treasury gave him $25 mil of good $100 notes to replace his counterfeits. The Treasury Department had to be dragged along kicking and screaming.
Guess what else? Lil Kim’s gotten Iran to test his latest missles too.
As Bolton said, Bush does not need another failure. Viewed it from a different angle, God may be working in a mysterious way. Even when U.S. tries to appease NK for whatever reason, it fails anyway.
Kim Jong-il may think he beat the rap, but he could be undone by somebody or something other than Bush. An interesting situation is developing.
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