Mustangman_2000
12-15-2007, 12:53 AM
I'm going to something I don't think I've ever done in this forum. I'm going to credit President Bush for doing a good job in exercising diplomacy and showing restraint on this issue. In contrast to everything else happening in the global theater, this is a success story worth talking about. It doesn't fully satisfy the concerns of the folks in charge of National Security, but it is a big step forward. Hopefully, Kim Jong-il will follow through and not equivocate in the last minute.
By HELENE COOPER
Published: December 15, 2007
WASHINGTON Responding to a recent letter from President Bush, North Korea agreed on Friday to follow through on its pledge to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, provided the United States reciprocates by normalizing relations between the countries.
President Bush said Friday that his initial letter, which was delivered by Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, on Dec. 5, achieved its purpose.
I got his attention with a letter and he can get my attention by fully disclosing his programs, including any plutonium he may have processed and converted some of that into whatever hes used it for. We just need to know, Mr. Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden after a cabinet meeting. As well, he can get our attention by fully disclosing his proliferation activities.
North Korea agreed in October to dismantle all of its nuclear facilities and to disclose all of its past and present nuclear programs by the end of the year in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in economic aid.
That agreement has come under fierce criticism from national security hawks, in part because it does not require North Korea to turn over its existing stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium and any nuclear warheads it may already have produced. But many foreign policy experts point to it as a rare diplomatic success for President Bush in a period that has been dominated by frustration in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East.
An important step is a full declaration of programs, materials that may have been developed to create weapons, as well as the proliferation activities of the regime, Mr. Bush said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/washington/15korea.html?ref=world
By HELENE COOPER
Published: December 15, 2007
WASHINGTON Responding to a recent letter from President Bush, North Korea agreed on Friday to follow through on its pledge to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, provided the United States reciprocates by normalizing relations between the countries.
President Bush said Friday that his initial letter, which was delivered by Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, on Dec. 5, achieved its purpose.
I got his attention with a letter and he can get my attention by fully disclosing his programs, including any plutonium he may have processed and converted some of that into whatever hes used it for. We just need to know, Mr. Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden after a cabinet meeting. As well, he can get our attention by fully disclosing his proliferation activities.
North Korea agreed in October to dismantle all of its nuclear facilities and to disclose all of its past and present nuclear programs by the end of the year in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in economic aid.
That agreement has come under fierce criticism from national security hawks, in part because it does not require North Korea to turn over its existing stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium and any nuclear warheads it may already have produced. But many foreign policy experts point to it as a rare diplomatic success for President Bush in a period that has been dominated by frustration in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East.
An important step is a full declaration of programs, materials that may have been developed to create weapons, as well as the proliferation activities of the regime, Mr. Bush said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/washington/15korea.html?ref=world