politicization of North Korea
2006-10-12 18:53:12.313781+00 by
Dan Lyke
3 comments
As the Republican spin machine kicks into high gear, I think it's worth noting a few things:
Under Clinton's policies, North Korea was not refining plutonium, even though they had the capability to do so and had threatened to do so. And there were inspectors there to verify this. There may have been some back and forth on various agreements, but there was no plutonium refining.
Under Dubya's policies, North Korea began refining plutonium and built and detonated a bomb.
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2006-10-13 00:23:51.596973+00 by:
warkitty
But but but but...... Its all Clinton's fault! Really! I'm sure of it!
(so is global warming, cancer and the overabundance of abandoned pets)
#Comment Re: made: 2006-10-13 02:16:47.394474+00 by:
Larry Burton
The Wisconsin Project claims that the problem actually stems from as far back as the Reagan administration and has just been handed forward until now.
The best that can be said about the 1994 agreement is that no good options were available at the time. The proper time to confront North Korea was during the Reagan and first Bush administrations. The nuclear program had not yet reached the threshold of success, and there was still time for sanctions to work. But those administrations pushed the problem into the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration, in turn, made a deal that handed the problem forward to the second Bush administration, which must grapple with it now once again.
Personally, I don't think much could have been done to avoid us being where we are now without having gotten rid of Kim Sung Il and that could have led to some even worse issues with China. Yeah, we've seen a lot of incompetence out of the Bush administration and we've seen some incompetence in the handling of North Korea but the reason we are where we are is because this is where Kim Sung Il wants to be.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-10-13 05:03:58.442611+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Good article. It should also be noted that that light water reactor promised in 1994 has never gone forward.
Not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing, just additional grist for the mill.