Posted on 11/25/2007 4:59:27 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo
U.S. Diplomat Is Residing in North Korean Capital, Chosun Says
By Heejin Koo
Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. diplomat has been residing in North Korea since mid-November, acting as a liaison between the governments of Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified official in Washington.
The presence of the unidentified U.S. envoy, who is staying at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, is an indication of improved relations between the two nations since North Korea pledged to disable its Yongbyon nuclear plant by the end of this year, the Seoul-based daily said.
The U.S. plans to send more envoys to reside in Pyongyang in preparation for normalized relations between the two nations, Chosun said. The two countries agreed to normalize ties under an accord reached in February aimed at scrapping North Korea's nuclear program that was also signed by South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.
North Korea began disabling its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, fuel-reprocessing plants and a fuel fabrication plant under the supervision of U.S. inspectors earlier this month. Kim Jong Il's regime has pledged to complete the process and provide a list of its nuclear programs by Dec. 31.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heejin Koo in Seoul at hjkoo@bloomberg.net
Here is the critical access point to the "New York Route".
You have been reading about the increasing appeasement and abject, naive idiocy of the Bush Administration embracing the Madeline Albright approach to Kim Jong il, here, regularly on FREE REPUBLIC.
The Koryo Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea...
Pyongyang Koryo Hotel Changgwang Street, Tonghung-dong, Central District, Pyongyang Telephone: 011-850-2-321-7851
Ping!
It's apparantly TRUE.
BTTT
alert
If you can stream WABC, John Bolton is on with John Batchelor now
Thanks for the heads up.
Let us see if they take calls. If possible, I or someone else might get in to ask the question.
Conditions inside North Korea make most sub-Sahara African nations look like idyllic paradises.
If the North Koreans ever decided to invade the South, their advance would be halted by the first supermarket.
While I remain convinced that the State Department is the natural home of the traitors and incompetent in government service; I would rather we have someone on the inside talking with North Korea and proactively planning how to take care of the population in place instead of waiting for a starving horde to start moving south.
Just MHO...
There is usually a live thread for Batchelors’ program but not up yet.
He has Bolton on from time to time. After the break Bolton will be back on.
this guy is special.
Not entirely sure why all the negativity here. Unlike Clinton, Bush stuck to the multi-lateral talks route and it appears to be bearing fruit.
We have inspectors on the ground at NORK nuke facilities (yes, they tried to dump them off to Syria, but we’ve all seen how well THAT went.)
Carrots, sticks and pressure from China, Russia and Japan...
We know how quickly commie countries implode when exposed to the outside.
Thank you.
Ooooooh...! THE LEGACY...!
There was no agreement to dismantle and end the DPRK nuke effort, only an effort to "disable" it temporarily, in return for massive food and aid. The State Department keeps shifting their final positions, and gets more and more to the point of what the DPRK wants. They had initially insisted that it be disabled so that it would take several years to restart, they then caved and made it one year, now they have caved further and it is only a matter of months, according to most analysts, that the DPRK can RESTART their facilities. And, we have only stipulated the facilities that we know about. They have merely shifted resources, production, R/D, etc. to other locations within the DPRK as well as to third countries, i.e. Syria.
It would be the heighth of hypocrisy for me to critize Clinton/Albright/Richardson/Pritchard here on FR in 1999 and 2000, and then give the Bush Administration a "pass" in 2007, for esentially for doing the same thing, because they, well, er, are "the Bush Administration".
Sorry, cannot play such a partisan game with such a critical issue.
zannenn desuga, demo sou kamoshirenai....
Just great, Bolton ends with the North Korean - Syrian connection.
my sentiments exactly. It’s like “sheesh!, what’s next?!”
Bad things is, NORTHIES KNOW THIS TOO, BY NOW.
Talk about a weak position.
Sucks to be a negotiator and know the other side knows how desperate you are for a deal-at-all-costs and that you have no intention of "walking away from the table" even if they serve up a heaping, hot bowl of cow crap for you.
>>It’s apparantly TRUE.<<
Since we know there have been talks in NK, why is it surprising that we have somebody there?
I had expected them to stay at the Pottangang!!
Yeah that no people in those building only few AIT
bump
I wonder if President Bush or Condi Rice are so hard up on Legacy that they risking this kiss up the butt of Chia Pet
If and when that happens, I suggest Hunter, Tancredo, Thompson, whomever, (heck, all three would be great) great ready to raise an immense stink and bring it directly into the Presidential Primary in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as an issue.
My prediction it going happen around Christmas time while everybody including Freepers be partying with family and friends
I think it is Christmas quietly take North Korea down Axis of evil list
Clinton pulled a lot of crap around Christmas or the Super Bowl. If Bush is going to copy Clinton in the negotiating game, why not as to the timing, too??!!
This looks really bad especially in the backdrop of many appeasement deals, heavy oil aids, access to international finance, and removal from state terrorism sponsors. All of them without much of N. Korean progress in nuke issues. Especially attempt to relocate nuke program to Syria which Israelis bombed.
These guys are flat-out dangerous. Still there are many here who scream whenever such attempts from Bush admin's part were leaked or uncovered.
The amount of abuse some unleashed on Rep. Ros-Lehtined when she went public about admin cover-up was an eye-opener. It was quite disappointing.
The wholesale firing and house cleaning of the State Department is about seventy years overdue.
When we finally get a Republican in office, and hopefully for two terms so he would have time, perhaps we can do that.
It is a shame that we have had straight Democrat Administrations continuously since the 1940s.
Of course, I am being sarcastic here.
Nice thought, but China would NEVER allow it.
N.Korea is a buffer state and a proxy for China's wild card games in Iran and Syria.It will be with us for a very long time.
This whole fiasco is a bait and switch diplomatic game with China pulling the strings. It will change back again immediately after the end of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
China is more likely to exit Tibet than to have N.Korea fall out of its protective hegemony into the Western sphere of affluence. China is ready to bring its own affluence to N. Korea. It can certainly afford to do so. That is the more likely development that will unfold from this process. And China is loving every second of ticking off the Japanese government, becuase it means that in the next election cycle, more liberal politicians will be elected, people who want to cozy up to China for commercial reasons, and for cultural reasons.
It will be interesting to see if Japan swings more conservative or more liberal in the next election cycle. Most Japanese I know do not like Chinese they have in their country and do not trust them, but then the commercial interests usuually hold sway in Japanese politics.
The CHIcom goal is to foster a split between Japan, and the USA. So far they are doing a pretty good job of it. Dubyah's state department officials seem to have taken the bait, hook , line and sinker. One immediate sign of this is that the US post office has no public surface mail to Japan anymore, every thing goes by air, and its very expensive. Normal ties between Japanese people and American people are getting more and more difficult. We no longer have a surface fleet merchant navy which can deliver mailed packages on a regular basis. The Chinese have it all now. The USPO was given high rates for surface mail by the CHICOMs just to begin cutting off this communication between America and Japan. SO the USPO said fine, if it costs that much for subcontracted surface mail to Japan, we will end surface shipping of packages to Japan via Chinese shipping, and go strictly air priority one. It costs $35.00 to mail a small flat rate box limited to 15 pounds. A 20 pound box larger than a flat rate box can run to $70.00, just becuase it has to go by air. Talk aboout making it difficult for US businesses to sell things to Japanese people!
Interestingly enough, the Japanese still have regular surface mail from Japan to the USA, using their own container ships , ships that the USA no longer has in its commercial inventory.
This is how insidious the Chinese are.And only one candidate out there is speaking about it: Duncan Hnter.Think about that.
Japan will likely turn to China, as she has in her historical past, for trade, culture , and military exchanges, within the next sicx or seven years.
Read it and weep.
I don’t disagree with you about the dangers of China, but Chinese affluence is insufficient to save North Korea. Even given their closer proximity and land bridge to North Korea, the Chinese lack the distribution and transportation infrastructure required.
We may have not have enough either, but as the tsunami relief effort demonstrated, no one else even come close. The economy of the United States represents 30% of the world’s total output of goods and services.
Even if we were to get an international relief effort with global cooperation, competence, and a total lack of corruption on as scale never before demonstrated in the history of the world; the collapse of North Korea will make Katrina look like a Sunday picnic in the park. And it will occur just as the worst of the winter weather sets in to grip the land for months.
The old USMC rule of thumb for planning a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) applies: Take your absolute, worst case, total nightmare scenario — then triple it.
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