De-Nuking North Korea? Yep, Looks Like We Won Another One.
This is not merely an encouraging sign, but represents a huge, hard-won victory for the Bush administration (and, well, all of us!). North Korea has turned over a declaration of its nuclear activity to China, one of the parties in the six-nation talks that have been going on for the past few years, and have foresworn future nuclear weapons development. In addition, the Norks were scheduled on Thursday to dismantle its Yongbon nuclear reactor. There is a 45-day confirmation period after which we’ll know if the declaration is comprehensive or not. If it is confirmed, then we will start sending some humanitarian aid in the form of food and energy supplies. Part of the deal also involves our removing them from the list of terror-sponsiring states, which gives them some trade options and allows for the possibility of many more. This assumes, of course, that the declaration is as comprehensive as they claim it is.
For those who have criticized the President for being a cowboy who spurned cooperation with other nations, this is a stunning refutation. President Bush stubbornly held to keeping the talks among the six nations surrounding North Korea even when Kim Jong-Il walked away and demanded to deal only with the US. Oddly enough, the President got heat for sticking to his guns on that. However, it looks like his instincts were right again.
His decision to pull North Korea from the “axis of evil” list (which, by the way, is down to only one members), is earning him criticism from within the Republican Party. There are those who think he’s doing that too quickly. But as I understand it, membership on that list has discreet conditions and if a country doesn’t meet those conditions, they can’t be on the list. North Korea won’t meet the conditions, the President says, so they have to come off. It’s not helping his cause that John Kerry has finally decided to come out and support him on something. Unfortunately, he’s supporting the President with the same elementary-school “diplomacy, yay!” simplisme that got him crushed as a Presidential candidate.
I am quite sure that we will continue to keep our eyes on the Norks, to make sure that they are doing what they should be doing. I don’t expect us to fully embrace them until Kim is dead or overthrown. There’s no way that he can liberalize himself enough to suit the civilized world. This declaration is a big, encouraging first step, though, toward that eventual goal. In time, we mahy yet see a free and prosperous North Korea. For now, though, let’s just be glad that we’ve gotten to this point.
Wow, even the New York Times is dribbling the President some praise today, though they are completely wrong about his so-called reticence to engage North Korea in diplomacy. What their reporter forgets, or doesn’t care to look up, is that the whole time the President was being harsh and critical and confrontational with North Korea, he was also engaging in the multilateral negotiations that brought the agreement around. Both approaches were necessary – the multilateral diplomacy to make sure that China, especially, was putting pressure on Kim and the confrontational stance to make sure that Kim was very clear on the fact that he had exactly one diplomatic route open to him. I do not see how the talks would have worked without both approaches being used at the same time.
Oh, and way to put that Kerry quote front-and-center, NYT. When I think of foreign policy smarts, I think of John “Global Test” Kerry.
(via memeorandum)
Other Posts of Interest:
- More on the Syrian Nuclear Reactor. Now with Video Evidence!
- Dropping the Dime on the Assad/Kim Nuclear Lovefest
- What I’d Like Bush to Say to Hu
Category: No More Tyrants, Our Foreign Policy
[...] and I don’t dismiss any of them, but it seems to me that the deal, as it stands right now, is a good one. The disclosure that North Korea made still has to be verified and our whole end of things can be [...]