pudge's Journal: North Korea Can Kiss My Shiny Uranium ...

A few days ago, North Korea announced they were pulling out of the multilateral talks. They said they were not working because the U.S. was being hostile.

So how has the U.S. been hostile? They never quite said, until today: "If the U.S. moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the U.S. is changing its hostile policy ... ."

Incredible. This is like a little kid who doesn't want to let you play with his ball, and then you finally convince him to, and then he gets mad at you for playing with his ball.

North Korea fought tooth and nail to avoid multilateral talks, because they have always been able to get away with cheating on bilateral agreements. That is precisely why the U.S. has, for a few years now, insisted on multilateral talks.

Back then, in 2002, North Korea actually claimed that the U.S. insistence on multilateral talks was evidence of hostility, as they are now. And yet, North Korea eventually agreed, but now is backing out, because the U.S. is proving itself hostile by insisting on multilateral talks, which they've been doing all along.

It's maddening.

And they said they have nuclear weapons, although every time in the past they've said they could prove it, they've failed to do so. (Literally, last year, they were going to prove they were further than we thought, to a U.S. envoy on site, and just before they got to that part of the tour, they said, "oops, time's up!" So forgive me for being skeptical.)

It doesn't get much crazier than this. And I wonder who they think they're fooling. It is terribly obvious this is all just a ploy to get back to bilateral agreements that they can then easily cheat on, just like before. Maybe they do have nuclear weapons, maybe they don't, but this whole thing about the hostility of the U.S., it is all about trying to break up a potential agreement that would actually have some weight behind it.

my $0.02

[nocomment]

IS that N Korea sees some "anti-american sentiments" in the world and can now get away with it. N Korea said before the elction that i Bush won they would pull out. Of course they would, because Bush isn't some wuss.

How has the U.S. been hostile?

[ExMember]

You asked how has the US has been hostile? Here's a list, culled directly from the DPRK statement of Feb 10.

• "Defined the DPRK as an 'outpost of tyranny'"
• Stated "that they would not rule out the use of force when necessary"
• "Pledged to build a world based on the U.S. view on value through the 'spread of American style liberty and democracy.'"
• "Declared a new ideological stand-off aimed at a 'regime change' in the DPRK"
• "Defiled the dignified political system in the DPRK chosen by its people and wantonly

Re:How has the U.S. been hostile?

[pudge]

"Defined the DPRK as an 'outpost of tyranny'"

That is factual.

Stated "that they would not rule out the use of force when necessary"

That is true of every nation on the planet. We would not rule out the use of force with Russia or China either -- neither they with us -- and they are on our side in this matter.

"Pledged to build a world based on the U.S. view on value through the 'spread of American style liberty and democracy.'"

That's false.

"Declared a new ideological stand-off aimed at a 'regime c

Re:How has the U.S. been hostile?

[The Bungi]

Defiled the dignified political system in the DPRK chosen by its people and wantonly interfered in its internal affairs

ROFL, of course they did. Defiled it, they did. The dignified system chosen by its people, of course. And only 1/2 million of them projected to starve this year, too!

it's all about $

[tf23]

It's all about money. North Korea wants it, needs it.

We've bought them off in the past, they want us to do the same again.

Just my $.02...

Re:it's all about $

[pudge]

I agree entirely. Part of any agreement will be us paying them, even multilateral. But bilateral means they can violate the agreement and demand another one in a few years, which means more money.