South Korea has made a new, secret proposal to North Korea in an attempt to get negotiations to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program back on track. This is potentially important news, all the more so coming on the heels of the North Koreans announcing that they have successfully completed the removal of 8,000 fuel rods from their Yongbyon complex (as they did back in 2003 - this is ANOTHER 8,000 rods). The US response has so far been (as it was in 2003) a simple refusal to meet with the North Koreans, and a call for greater isolation of the regime. Ah yes, that's a way to deal with a murderous despot building ever greater stashes of weapons-grade plutonium - just call him names, inflame his fears, but otherwise ignore him and take no real action to stop him from developing the world's most dangerous weapons - I feel safer and more secure, don't you?
And that isolation thing is working really well. We have such a successful record of achieving that - for example, did you know that North Korea's foreign trade increased 22% from 2002 to 2004 and is now at the highest level since 1991 (when another Bush was in the White House). You can make a strong case for this regime being the greatest security threat the US faces today - and for the last 4+ years this administration has failed utterly in trying to weaken it. When I think about this issue, and the president's embarrassing performance in last year's foreign policy debate, I'd feel a great deal safer if John Kerry was in the White House.
Posted by armand at May 17, 2005 10:19 AM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs