N Korea offers US pledge on weapons

North Korea, probably the world's most secretive and isolated nation, has offered an olive branch to the US by promising never to sell nuclear materials to terrorists, calling for Washington's friendship and saying it does not want to suffer the fate of Iraq.

Senior members of the communist regime have spelt out proposals for solving the simmering crisis over their nuclear weapons programmes in an unusually frank series of interviews with Selig Harrison, the Washington-based Korean expert.

Although their statements will be treated with scepticism in Washington, they suggest a reasoned view of international affairs in sharp contrast to the simplistic, bellicose and anti-American rhetoric used by junior officials and relayed to the world by the North Korean news agency.

In Mr Harrison's first-hand report, published in Tuesday's FT, North Korean leaders explicitly condemn al-Qaeda, and categorically reject US accusations that they would be willing to transfer nuclear technology to the Islamist terror group - or to anyone else

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180244930&p=1012571727092

did we get Kim during that train explosion?

He made an apperance today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3679843.stm

I tried to get to Selig Harrison's report, published in today's (May 4) FT, but it is only available to subscribers. Drat.

I saw the last part of his talk at the Wilson Center on c-span last night and he urged people to read his article. He maybe didn't know how hard that would be. The session at the Wilson Center was riveting. Lots of new information. Unfortunately, c-span seems not to have scheduled a replay. I really, really want to tape it and listen to it more than once. Oh well.

Another "axis of evil" member falls without a fight. First Syria opens up unconditionally and surrenders weapons programs we didn't even know they had, and now these psychos are coming clean. Just wait...You can bet the pubs will milk this thing for all it's worth. I can hear them now: "There is NO WAY this would have happened had we not take action to remove Saddam." "Appeasement doesn't work. Action is the only thing these people understand and this is why they are disarming now."

And you know what really sucks for us?...It's probably true.
go ahead and flame me...but I really think the only reason Syria/N.Korea are caving is because PNAC and Bu$hco have them scared absolutely sh!tless. It's obvious from the statements issued by Syria, and now this stuff. The leaders of the regimes value holding their power much more than they value getting a WMD. Its a perfectly rational decision on their part...giving up before getting blown up by a rash and unpredictable US attack in an election year. I think this news will be good for the world long term, but theres no question it is also good for Bush politically, so I'm really conflicted on what to think. uuugh!

Regardless of anyone's opinion of Bush, a threat that is looking for peace is a GOOD thing. How can you even consider partisanship before this? You even acknowledge that this is a good thing...

who Bush's moves have caused to speed up their nuclear program.

And, NK has the bomb already, so they're more willing to compromise knowing that they're in no danger of attack.

Bush created a huge, global weapons race. Just because North Korea gives signals it wants to play nice (which it does just about every six months it seems) doesn't justify Bush's policies.

I wasn't trying to justify the actions...I was just saying that a possible good thing is a good thing, regardless of what may have spurred it on.

This is all under the assumption that NK is being honest here anyway.

BTW, great to see another Islander fan around!!!

:D

I get what you're saying. I just doubt NK is being that honest. Frankly, the more I study global politics the more I realize that you can't trust anyone.

"Another "axis of evil" member falls without a fight."
Too much!

I don’t want to offence you but I fear that you have probably missed some episodes about NK.

Anyway, be assured that all this is pure rhetorical (if not fiction), and that the policy of the neocons is a pure disaster. Before, there were really positive negotiations between North Korea and Korea, and even with Japan (and you can’t imagine how NK hate Japan). Now we have made a great back step and the NK government is returned in paranoid mode. The only good thing, for Japan, is that USA has probably surpassed Japan as mortal enemy. But I can’t agree that it worth the misery provoked by such bully policy.

One last point, the rhetorical of the neocons is definitely useless against NK. USA can’t invade NK, and they know it, then so much about “caving”.

By the way, I’m not in fond of NK (I’m in range of their missiles and they have clearly stated that they don’t love us), but I don’t like more calling them “axis of evil”. It’s not very useful to negotiate…

Sorry to have been perhaps a bit aggressive, but sometime I’m wondering if we live in the same world.

Regards from Japan

They certainly are not going to shut down their nuclear
program and they certainly will not stop selling
weapons to the enemies of the US when they see fit to do so. Perhaps China persuaded them to enter a quiet phase of weapons development and disbursement; progress without publicity. NK may be weak but they will not be weak forever, and at this time you can't trust them any more than you can trust Bush.

There is a solution to this:
The US must stop avoiding serious negotiation.
A deal can still be struck.

Do you mean Libya?

you have to be kidding. if NK disarms, along with all these other countries abandoning their quest for WMD, and i said IF, it would almost be ok if bush got elected. and i DID say ALMOST.

sheeeesh...

Is this real?

Is this a farce?

:wow:

Of course, I would be ecstatic if this is true. I'm just having a way, way hard time believing it. I can't help myself.

:shrug:

Sounds pretty strange...good but strange.

the point of my earlier post was to get DU'ers brainstorming...This looks an awful lot like capitulation on the part of the north koreans and syrians...They are throwing their arms up because they are scared of Bu$h and his PRE-EMPTIVE FOREIGN POLICY!!! We can't let them get away with this...We can't let the pukes say "See, it works!" It would be a disaster for world order and world opinion of the USA. We need some arguments against the Bush policies, even though they seem to have worked in this case....think!!

I think the Libya thing was nothing more than political theater, as is this North Korea episode. So, pre-emptive war has had not successes, although Bush/PNAC will try to argue that it has.

Like I say, just keep pointing back to Iraq - 10s of thousands or Iraqis dead, thousands of coalition, hundreds of billions of wasted tax dollars, now evidence of torture besmirching the reputation of the United States. That isn't much to boast about for Bush.

Americans give a flying f*ck about Iraqis. "Nuke em all" "Gawd bless Amurikka" They see the thousands we have murdered in Iraq as a good thing..."Get em there before they come over here...yeah!"

,...and I am simply not convinced that this article is hard evidence that the neocon policy is somehow "working".

NK states they will continue to sell missles and
continue building nuclear weapons.
They also promise not to sell nuclear weapons or material to the 'bad guys.'
What would we expect them to say: that they plan
to start actively marketing nuclear warheads on the world market? :)

This is silly.

"Is this a farce?"

Of course it is. It's North Korean diplomacy. The game goes roundwardsly and roundwardsly.

From the article:

"He reports that the North Koreans firmly rejected the idea of immediately dismantling their nuclear programmes, insisted on a phased process with concessions on each side, and threw no light on how far they had developed weapons or how their actions could be verified."

----snip---


The current nuclear "crisis" started back in October 2002 when North Korea "admitted" to having a uranium project. Since that time, North Korea has said they will discontinue that program if the US gives a security guarantee as well as economic concessions.

The article from the FT is spinning this weirdly. The article says North Korea is planning to give up weapons to avoid being "liberated". In reality, North Korea is developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent (they're hedging that even Shrubby McShrubster isn't crazy enough to launch air strikes on a nuclear country).

I don't see anything new in their position either. What's going on here? There's some very odd spin.

Moon has been showering the idiot in NK with lavish gifts for a few years now. He even supplied him with a nuclear submarine.

Very, VERY odd dealings.

I doubt the rightwing fundies have any clue as to how deeply involved Bush is with Moon and how much of our foreign policy is left to Moon's overtures. Hell, they don't even know that Moon controls almost half this nation's fishing industry...facilitated by Moon's longtime alliance with the Bush family. Disgusting.