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| Korea |
| Seoul seeks Bush accord on diplomacy |
| 2003-05-12 |
| What evidence does President Roh have that North Korea is ready for "peaceful change"? Does he see something positive in Kim Jong Il's desire for WMD's or in his export of illicit drugs. President Roh Moo-hyun will urge President Bush to join him this week in a public promise to resolve growing tensions with North Korea by peaceful means, exempting the communist nation from the U.S. policy of "pre-empting" regimes that pursue weapons of mass destruction. "The mere thought of a military conflict with North Korea is a calamity for us," Mr. Roh told The Washington Times in an interview here Friday prior to his first face-to-face meeting with Mr. Bush, which will take place this week. "If possible, we think it is much more reasonable for us to induce North Korea to reform itself and to open up to the outside world," Mr. Roh said, citing a policy of social, political and economic engagement begun by his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung. "Of course," Mr. Roh said bluntly, "alongside pursuing the engagement policy we are fully prepared and fully braced for a possible calamity."... "There are some Koreans who are afraid that President Bush's peaceful resolution principles may change at any minute," said Mr. Roh. The president gave his answers in Korean, which were simultaneously translated to English by his official interpreter. "So by agreeing at the summit on this peaceful resolution principle" to the crisis with North Korea, Mr. Roh said, he and Mr. Bush can calm the concerns of his countrymen. In turn, Mr. Roh said he would reassure Americans that during his five-year term, which began in February, South Korea will remain a strong and reliable ally: "I think that many Americans do not know me well and some of them may have doubts about me, and I will try my best to resolve all these doubts about me during this visit. I fully understand the mood and the circumstances that gave rise to [the pre-emption] doctrine. I would like to discuss with President Bush that the circumstances on the Korean Peninsula may not be appropriate for applying this principle."... Of the Pyongyang government, Mr. Roh said: "Their ultimate objective is hard to understand, and the ways and means, the diplomatic and political ways of North Korea, to achieve their objective are unacceptable." He remains nevertheless convinced, he said, that North Korea is ready for peaceful change. (con't see link) |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #8 Michael makes a good point. SK is notoriously bad and finding out what is going on up north, though the north has had success penetrating SK and obviously has plenty of open source info. So any claims about what's happening up there are probably not based on very good intel info. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-05-12 23:00:39 |
| #7 Roh will never let reality interfere with any of his ideas which make no rational sense to anyone but idiots. His administration does not have enough information on human rights in NK to say if they are better or worse than the South. He does want the US to play speed bump. I am making plans to get myself out of here as the government here is pretty much set on self destruction. |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-05-12 22:44:23 |
| #6 Roh has built his theory on the assumption that NK is no real threat so matters of defense are not seen as relevant. Rumsfeld was right to call him on this earlier this year. He changed his tune for a while but has now returned to his delusions. The SKs see our soldiers as nothing more than hostages preventing us from pursuing a confrontational policy with regard to NK. Many of Roh's younger, more nationalist supporters see the NK bomb as a long term benefit as they will inherit it upon reunification. China benefits from the fact that that the Sunshine Policy is driving a wedge between the US and SK that will force us off the peninsula one way or another. The NK bomb hastens this process. Of course, none of the parties really care about the humanitarian crisis. So, our fallback ally is Japan, which is showing signs of taking the threat seriously -- witness recent remarks from their defense minister. Still, you know its a bad situation when we the best we can hope hope for is a more aggressive Japan. We can all thank the delusions of SK voters for this pickle. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-05-12 18:17:39 |
| #5 President Kim spent the last five years telling us how North Korea was changing, but we've seen precious little evidence of it. I know Mr. Roh was elected on a platform of engagement, but you would have thought that after five years of being tooled around by Pyongyang, Seoul would have learned to stop beating a dead policy horse. Five more years of this crap... assuming I'm not nuked and/or invaded in the meantime. |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-05-12 11:04:46 |
| #4 Bush needs to read this puke the Riot Act. He's essentially Gerhard Schroeder with kimchee breath and fewer ex-wives. The RoK is wealthy enough and populous enough to provide for its own defense. Why should our troops be a speed bump to these ungrateful louts? Memo to Roh: When Dear Leader invades and crushes schoolgirls under HIS tanks, who you gonna bitch to? |
| Posted by: Ned 2003-05-12 17:27:40 |
| #3 I would imagine that the SKor stock market would take a dive............. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-12 16:06:23 |
| #2 Here's a good test: move all American forces OUT of S. Korea to Japan. Then announce that there will be no American defense of any hostile actions by the north, but that an attack on Japan will be met with massive retaliation. I wonder what would happen then....? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-05-12 14:37:55 |
| #1 North Korea, which launched a missile the day of Roh's inauguration, today embarrassed him again by pulling out of its last binding nuke treaty with South Korea at the same time he arrived in the US. Roh is the Jimmy Carter of South Korean politics. We need to disentangle our policy from this loser's asap and move our troops south, to Japan or home. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-05-12 14:04:42 |