North Korea: Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Smuggling, Letters From Obama, Special Envoys, and Six Party Talks
(October 11, 2008 - Photo by Handout/Getty Images AsiaPac)
So President Obama has taken up a new pen pal in the form of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-ill in the interest of convincing the wackjob rogue leader and his nation to return to Six-Party talks regarding its nuclear ambitions and the Koreans – just like the Iranians – continue to defy the blissfully ignorant, appeasement friendly, Leader of the “Free” World. The letter was delivered to Kim Jong-il by US Special Envoy Stephen Bosworth who visited Pyongyang to attempt to persuade the dictator to reopen negotiations focused on disarmament.
While the fact that the President is now writing personal letters to rogue nations makes me feel all warm and cozy inside, it should be noted that while the “Special Envoy” was discussing future negotiations, North Korea found itself in the middle of an arms smuggling scandal. A shipment of 35 tons of weapons was detained in Thailand by authorities during a routine inspection revealing an assortment of toys ranging from rocket launchers to missile defense systems. The full details of the smuggling scandal have not yet been revealed, but the plane that carried them departed the Ukraine and was scheduled to return there as well with several stops along the way – including North Korea. You might ask, what would Ukraine have to gain from any dealings with North Korea? The answer – its a worldwide recession…hello! The answer’s money and this isn’t the first time that the nation has been involved in shady dealings of this sort. In the past, they have been exposed for shipping weapons to Darfur and even their former countrymen in Georgia. Those scandals revealed involvement by many politicians at all levels of government and even implicated the President as well.
The plane in question is currently being held by Thai authorities while government officials figure out the true intentions of the shipment and whether UN sanctions have been violated. As you might expect, the White House has been extremely tight-lipped regarding the little scandal and the main stream media hasn’t even batted an eye at the story. (As you can see by the Russian clip below) It is a pretty bitter pill for the administration to have to swallow as it so proudly videotaped and publicized the little letter writing campaign. It might make the President appear a little foolish to be writing love letters to a dictator when he is running guns with the Ukraine violating a wide range of UN sanctions.
Obama hopes to encourage North Korea to return to talks over denuclearisation. The country left aid-for-disarmament discussions a year ago, vowing never to return. It subsequently tested a nuclear device in May.
A senior US official, who confirmed Bosworth handed North Korean officials a personal letter from Obama and who spoke under the condition of anonymity, would not describe the contents of the letter but said they fitted with the envoy’s message.
“The North Koreans have a choice: continued and further isolation or benefits for returning to the six-party talks and dismantling their nuclear weapons programme,” he said. He was unaware whether the North Korean leader had responded.
Bosworth did not meet Kim during his visit, but spoke to the foreign policy chief, Kang Sok Ju, and chief nuclear envoy, Kim Kye Gwan.
North Korea has since said it understood the need to restart six-nation negotiations and would work with the US to resolve differences. The country’s foreign ministry said exhaustive and frank discussions had “deepened the mutual understanding, narrowed their differences and found not a few common points”.
Briefing reporters in Washington, Bosworth also said the North Koreans had “agreed the subject of a uranium enrichment program is now on the agenda,” whenever disarmament talks resume with international powers.
The US envoy’s groundbreaking visit to North Korea from December 8 to 10 was the first direct contact between Washington and Pyongyang under President Barack Obama’s tenure, but no date was set for resuming the six-party talks.
Ukraine and North Korea? Isn’t that the old Cold War foe joining forces with the new Axis of Evil? What could be worse? Could we add Iran in there too? Taliban? Pakistan?
Great post mate! Where