NK takes the bait
I'm not sure what to make of this. It's good that military conflict between the United States and North Korea has been averted and that North Koreans will finally get much needed aid. But, $250 million worth of overpriced goods sounds like a raw deal to me.
After months of tense negotiations and a marathon bargaining session in Beijing on Monday, North Korea agreed Tuesday (February 13) to close down its main nuclear reactor and begin dismantling its atomic-weapons program in exchange for approximately $250 million in food and fuel aid.The deal was brokered four months after the communist country surprised the world with an underground nuclear-bomb test (see "North Korea Claims Nuclear Weapons Test, Defying U.N. Warning"). And though the United States was encouraged by the agreement with its longtime foe, experts predicted it would be hard to monitor, according to an Associated Press report.
It's the first solid plan for disarmament in more than three years of six-nation negotiations, and it could usher in a new era of cooperation in the region with North Korea's longtime adversaries, the U.S. and Japan, who have agreed to discuss normalizing relations.
''Obviously we have a long way to go, but we're very pleased with this agreement,'' U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters, according to the AP. ''It's a very solid step forward.''
Nuclear experts said that actually making sure North Korea reveals all its nuclear facilities and shuts them down will be difficult considering the country has failed to honor previous agreements by allegedly running a uranium-processing weapons program after it shut down a plutonium-based one. The uranium processing is the issue that sparked the latest round of tension with the West, which began in 2002.
''We don't have an agreement at this point even on the existence of this program, but I certainly have made very clear repeatedly that we need to ensure that we know precisely the status of that,'' Hill said, according to the AP.
Under the terms of the new deal, North Korea would initially receive aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to help shut down and seal its main nuclear reactor and related facilities north of the capital within 60 days. If the country irreversibly disables the reactor and declares all its nuclear programs it could eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid.
The agreement also requires that North Korea state all its nuclear programs, including plutonium already extracted.
In an appearance on CNN, Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton hammered the deal and urged President Bush to reject it, saying, "I am very disturbed by this deal ... it sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: 'If we hold out long enough, wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded,' in this case with massive shipments of heavy fuel oil for doing only partially what needs to be done."
That settles it.
If Bolton the rotweiler is raging, then it can't be all that bad.
This one is really a stretch. If they struck a deal just for some 'stuff' to celebrate his birthday, they're in worse shape than I thought they were.
I don't buy it. Something else is going on.
One possible interpretation...
FACTS: The Bush regime has been squeezing North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung for six years (mostly at the behest of South Korea). Bush cut off oil and other resources. In response, Kim Il-Sung repeatedly offered to end his nuclear program if Bush ended his hostility, just as Iran offered. Bush refused. Instead, Bush had Stuart Levy and the other Zionists at the U.S. Treasury cut North Korea off from international banks, beginning in Macao. Result: North Korea tested a nuke, and expanded its black market trade with China. Bush has been pressuring Chinese banks and importers to stop doing business with North Korea, but he’s had limited success.
SPECULATION: China regards this situation as an annoyance. Since China brokers most arrangements between Bush and North Korea, I’m guessing that China engineered this latest agreement.
It could be that China doesn’t want its black-market relationship with North Korea to become a bigger mess. Therefore Bush eased up a bit in order to economically “batten down the hatches” between China and North Korea in advance of the Iran strike.
Regarding Bolton, he’s still furious from the North Korean UN delegation’s walk-out in the middle of Bolton’s threats. I saw films of him almost frothing at the mouth, pointing at empty chairs, and saying, “I want everyone to notice that!”
What a pathetic little moron. He’s a flaming Zionist-Gentile, yet even the Zionist-controlled U.S. Congress wouldn’t confirm him.
I’d love to know what Israel’s own delegate (the psychotically militant Dan Gillerman) privately thinks of Bolton.
Just saw The Charlie Rose Show with internationally famed screenwriter, playwright and Huffington Post blogger David Mamet on PBS this noon.
He labels Jimmy Carter a champion of murder & terrorism in response to Charlie's question on Mr. Carter's recent controversial book. I'm not kidding, it's on the record.
Tivo the program episode when it repeats on the local PBS.
I don't doubt David Mamet is an immensely talented writer, but he comes off as an irrational Zionist idiot, just like he defends Zionism passionately on Huffington Post.
ciao
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My blog Last Throes of US Empire
I too found The Mustache's comment rather funny, and I agree with you, if it pisses him off it must be a good thing. Howver, it's unlikely that Darth Cheney will approve the deal. Would set a good precedent regarding negotiations, and we just can't have that.
Chinese, Indian FMs Discuss Strategic Partnership
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Tuesday aiming to progress the deepening strategic partnership between the world's two most populous countries.
During the meeting, Li spoke of the favorable momentum of Sino-Indian ties towards comprehensive development, a momentum maintained through the successful visit of President Hu Jintao last November and the recent meeting between Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the East Asian Summit in the Philippines.
Both countries have reached mutual understanding on how to deepen the Sino-Indian strategic partnership and improve bilateral ties in the future, he said.
Li added that China will work with India towards full implementation of the 10-point plan to deepen the Sino-Indian strategic partnership, which was agreed upon during President Hu's visit, he said.
Mukherjee followed Li, saying the development of India-China relations is conducive to both sides and of importance to global peace and stability. With high-level exchanges such as President Hu's landmark visit, China and India should rapidly develop a mutual understanding to move forwards with bilateral ties.
The two foreign ministers further unveiled a new direct hotline between their respective offices, announced the formal start of a hotline between them, which was part of the 10-point plan.
Showing the widening scope of bilateral ties, China and India will also open consulates-general in Kolkata, capital of eastern Indian state West Bengal, and Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, by the end of 2007.
Li kicked off his four-day visit to India on Sunday. On Monday, he attended the opening ceremony of a memorial hall to Xuan Zang, a famed Chinese monk who made a pilgrimage to Nalanda in the northern Indian state of Bihar 1,300 years ago to further his Buddhist studies.
On Wednesday he will formally launch the China-India Friendship Year Through Tourism along with Mukherjee and Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni. He will then hold an important round of talks with Mukherjee and their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)