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| Korea |
| North Korea Said to Offer Small Nuclear Steps, at a Price |
| 2003-04-29 |
| Mr. Powell declined to provide other details of North Korea's offer, but other administration officials said North Korea had asked for a step-by-step package under which it would receive oil shipments, food aid, security guarantees, energy assistance, economic benefits and construction of a light-water nuclear reactor. In return, they said, North Korea had offered to take very small steps. The officials said that under its proposal North Korea would dismantle its nuclear weapons only at the end of the process. Moreover, they said, it was not clear that this would affect both its plutonium weapons program, frozen in 1994, and the highly enriched uranium program disclosed last year. American officials said that North Korea's offer was seen throughout the Bush administration as almost absurdly unacceptable. They said this was the view of both hard-liners, who oppose negotiations with North Korea, and moderates, who favor continued diplomatic contact. (con't see link) |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #4 Interesting idea, Marmot, but Dar has the long term ticket. NK is simply China's agent provocateur. (I HATE using a french term! Hmmm, how 'bout China's bitch?) Time to jerk China's chain. Maybe over SARS? |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-04-29 16:24:49 |
| #3 *nods* That sounds like a good idea, Marmot. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-29 14:08:46 |
| #2 I was playing around with an idea. One of the guiding principles of DPRK diplomacy is that even if they violate an agreement, the other side (usually us) will continue to regard the agreement as in force. We need to wean them off this assumption. In 1991, the US removed its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in return for promises that North Korea would not develop nuclear weapons. I was thinking that if one was gonna go down the diplomatic route, rather than simply offering concessions to get Pyongyang to do what they promised to do in '91 (and '94), we should first re-introduce tactical nukes back into South Korea, and start negotiations from there. I figure if we're both going to offer concessions, we should both be offering concessions we have conceeded before. |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-04-29 09:10:41 |
| #1 Hey, China--about you cut off all supplies to North Korea until they dismantle their nuclear program unconditionally, or would you like to see Japan with nuclear weapons? No? How about Taiwan? |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-04-29 08:48:01 |