By Here is what Hillary Clinton had to say recently about North Korea before heading off on her Asia trip this weekend:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
North Korea’s nuclear program is “the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.
But, Clinton said in a 45-minute address to the New York-based Asia Society, the Obama administration is prepared to seek a permanent, stable peace with Pyongyang as long as its government pursues disarmament and does not engage in aggression against neighboring South Korea.
“If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program, the Obama administration will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula’s long-standing armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people,” she said.
The United States wants to move forward with the six-party talks, working with China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and North Korea to address North Korea’s nuclear program, she said. However, keeping in line with the Obama administration’s approach of “engaging” its enemies, Clinton said the United States would consider bilateral contacts with Pyongyang. [CNN]
So in other words they are continuing the Bush administration policy with North Korea. So there is absolutely nothing new in that regards.
However, judging by who the Obama administration is looking to make their special envoy to North Korea I fully expect different results. As bad as the Bush administration’s policy with North Korea was at least they didn’t give the North Koreans absolutely everything they wanted with little to nothing in return.
I think it is a distinct possibility that during the Obama administration you will see a peace treaty signed and massive aid given to the North Koreans as Clinton just explained with little to nothing in return as well. However, don’t expect the North Koreans to disarm their nuclear weapons. They will do what they did to the Bush administration, make promises to disarm if the US acts first and after the US does something like remove them from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, they then reneg on their promises. It works every time.
Also notice how Hillary Clinton mentioned nothing about North Korean human rights abuses?
6:32 am on February 14th, 2009 1
The more things "change", the more they stay the same…
11:06 am on February 14th, 2009 2
"They will do what they did to the Bush administration, make promises to disarm if the US acts first and after the US does something like remove them from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, they then reneg on their promises. It works every time."
Shouldn't you include the Clinton administration in there also?
Remember the deal we made to build those light-water reactors? Thank goodness we never actually had to follow through on that deal.
10:25 pm on February 14th, 2009 3
Why do you never read people talking about how great the resources were that the Soviet Union and China pumped into North Korea and what became of it?
NK wasn't much of a friend to either nation – despite all it got.
There are lessons we can take from that as well as how much the North has refused to reform on many fronts since the end of Soviet and Chinese mammoth support.
If the US tries to replace the Cold War loss of sponsorship, we'll end up with little to nothing to show for it.
12:37 am on February 15th, 2009 4
Guitard, yes of course the Clinton administration should be included. You may have missed my prior posting this week:
http://rokdrop.com/2009/02/12/stephen-bosworth-na…
12:41 am on February 15th, 2009 5
Once the pay off happens again under the Obama administration there will be little or nothing to show for it either, especially considering they are saying nothing about the HEU program or the new plutonium reactor being built right now to replace Yongbyon.
The people that will definitely have to little to show from the pay off will be all the people in the gulags which so far the administration hasn't mentioned one word about.
To paraphrase Einstein, to continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result each time is the definition of insanity.
5:14 am on February 15th, 2009 6
Wow! What If … the peninsula’s long-standing armistice agreements is replaced with a permanent peace treaty?
Our longest war would be over. The Armistice was a protracted and formal cease fire.
Would the UN mission here be over?
How would the South Koreans respond?
Do the South Koreans have a say?
What becomes of USFK?
Do we pack up a leave?
Would we also require the North Koreans to reciprocate and demilitarize the DMZ?
These are very hypothetical questions that I don't expect Secretary Clinton to be asked, but I do hope they are given serious consideration.
2:46 pm on March 17th, 2009 7
Speaking of Hillary Clinton:
There is bad news about her husband.
It is opined that Bill Clinton committed racist hate crimes, and I am not free to say anything further about it.
Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Y. Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are probably thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post.)
_________________
“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.