Not only is he vowing to meet with Kim Jong-il now he is vowing to reward him as well:
U.S. Democratic presidential frontrunner Senator Barack Obama has recently indicated he no longer opposes the removal of North Korea from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Obama in January 2005 came out against the removal of the Stalinist nation from the list until it gives an account of the kidnapping and death in the North of the Rev. Kim Dong-shik in 2000. (…)
“We will NOT support the removal of your government from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism until such time, among other reasons, as a full accounting is provided to the Kim family regarding the fate of the Rev. Kim Dong-Shik following his abduction into North Korea five years ago.” (…)
Obama appears to have changed his position since. Meanwhile, the presidential hopeful has repeatedly said he wants to meet with leaders of hostile nations, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, if he is elected. [Chosun Ilbo]
I think it is literally a race to see who can appease Kim Jong-il first.
Popularity: 3%
11:22 am on May 23rd, 2008 1
I hate the Hatch Act.
11:27 am on May 23rd, 2008 2
Obama is making the right decision here. He needs to remove N. Korea from that damagin and arbitrary list. It has not done a thing and will not do a thing. There is a difference between talking and appeasing and a difference between incentive and reward.
12:41 pm on May 23rd, 2008 3
Yeah, there’s nothing that scares me more than a president who might actually change his mind as he learns new information, instead of sticking with a preconcieved position no matter what happens.
There’s moral integrity (if Senator McCain suddenly changed his mind about whether torture was moral, I might be a bit worried), and then there’s policy. So Obama was a bit idealistic and thought that approachment would work a lot better than isolation (as demonstrated by Cuba), and now he realizes that was naive. So what? Everyone, both Republican and Democrat, complained at the beginning that he was too idealistic, that he was all vision and had no sense of how to make policy that works, to get your hands dirty and get something done in the real world. And I would hope that since the campaign began, he’s been learning and trying to get some more practical knowledge. So he sees the history, sees that North Korea has done nothing but screw us whenever we try to be nice, and reevaluates his prior position? I don’t know about you, I’d rather have a president that’s willing to “flip flop” when all the information tells him his prior position was wrong, than one who’ll cover his ears, declare that “I’m the decider!” and stubbornly stick to a decision he made years before.
Then again, after reading some of the other entries, I think I know the real reason GI dislikes Obama for president.
2:10 pm on May 23rd, 2008 4
The GOP will never “flip-flop” because then they would have to admit a mistake. To them, escaping being branded as a “flip-flopper” is more important than fixing problems. Thank you Reagan!
2:13 pm on May 23rd, 2008 5
Also, it is Barack Obama with one “R”.
2:48 pm on May 23rd, 2008 6
The Chosun ilbo isn’t a really good source of info. A joke actually. By the way, McCain is going to sell America to Corea for cheep. A vote for McCain is a vote against America.
4:19 pm on May 23rd, 2008 7
11:17 pm on May 23rd, 2008 8
KJI must relish all the attention he receives. No doubt he will exploit (extort?) any conversation for whatever he can gain, just look at the long sordid history of this regime. Does anyone seriously look at the record and think any well intended dialogue will meaningfully change anything? YGBSM!! But is seems people from either party these days don’t mind being played for patsies. Strange…
7:14 am on May 24th, 2008 9
Kim Jong-il will not give up his nuclear weapons for various reasons I have discussed on this blog. Since he won’t give them up the answer is to reward him for this?
It is not just the nuclear weapons either you also have human rights, the defector issue, kidnapping of South Korean and foreign nationals, and the fact that the Japanese Red Army is still given sanctuary in Pyongyang.
Plus North Korea has never compensated the victims of KAL flight 858 like Libya had to compensate the victims of Pan Am flight 103 before they were removed from the terrorism list.
Kim Jong-il has consistently been the exception to the rules of foreign policy and Obama’s flip flop makes him now a supporter of the current State Department’s attempts to appease Kim Jong-il.
By the way there are much better options available to those wanting to formulate a serious North Korea policy.
10:41 am on May 24th, 2008 10
Obama would make great president. I guess people who post here are from West Virginia.
12:53 pm on May 25th, 2008 11
11:35 am on June 1st, 2008 12
5:48 am on June 22nd, 2008 13
[...] North Korea: U.S. Democratic presidential frontrunner Senator Barack Obama has recently indicated he no longer opposes the removal of North Korea from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Obama in January 2005 came out against the removal of the Stalinist nation from the list until it gives an account of the kidnapping and death in the North of the Rev. Kim Dong-shik in 2000.(Source: ROK Drop) [...]
6:58 am on June 22nd, 2008 14
8:06 pm on September 1st, 2008 15