N. Korea: We Won't Make Nukes

[David]

AP


North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, in a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.

The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the breakthrough as a "win-win situation" and "good agreement for all of us. But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good its promises by ending operations at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.

"What is the purpose of operating it at this point?" said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "The time to turn it off would be about now."

North Korea is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs from its publicly acknowledged plutonium program, but hasn't performed any known nuclear tests to prove its capability. In February, the North claimed it had nuclear weapons.

Despite the deal's potential to help significantly ease friction between the North and the United States, after years of false starts and setbacks, Hill remained cautious.

"We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead. We have to seize the momentum of this," he said before leaving for the airport to return to Washington.

The agreement with North Korea clinches seven days of talks aimed at setting out general principles for the North's disarmament. Envoys agreed to return just over a month later, in early November, to begin hashing out details of how that will be done.

According to a joint statement issued at the talks' conclusion, the North "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," the statement said.

Hill warned that could be a long process.

Responding to Pyongyang's claims that it needs atomic weapons for defense, North Korea and the United States pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence, and also to take steps to normalize relations.

"The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea) with nuclear or conventional weapons," according to the statement, in assurances echoed by South Korea.

The talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand that it keep the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, and the statement acknowledges the North has made such an assertion but doesn't go beyond that.

North Korea had also demanded that it be given a light-water nuclear reactor - a type less easily diverted for weapons use - but Washington had said it and other countries at the talks wouldn't meet that request.

Putting aside the question for now, the joint statement said: "the other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of light-water reactor" to North Korea.

North Korea has refused to totally disarm without getting concessions along the way, while Washington has said it wants to see the weapons programs totally dismantled before granting rewards. The statement, however, says the sides agreed to take steps to implement the agreement "in a phased manner in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action."'

The other countries at the talks said they were willing give energy assistance to the North, including a South Korean plan to deliver electricity across the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.

"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy.

North Korea was promised two light-water reactors under a 1994 deal with Washington to abandon its nuclear weapons. That agreement fell apart in late 2002 with the outbreak of the latest nuclear crisis, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a secret uranium enrichment program.

Japan and North Korea also said in the statement they would move to normalize relations regarding "the outstanding issues of concern." The reference appears to allude to Tokyo's concerns over its citizens that the North has admitted abducting.

[BLUEHAWK]

Why does this remind me of the British-German non-agression pact...

No Nukes in North Korea, yey, yahoo, whoppe, yeah right.

[Advisor]

Yeah, right!

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Just make sure the inspectors are old and tough. Don't want them to disappear into the local stew pot.

[HARDCORE]

"I'll believe it when I see it!"

This Kim Jong Il (or is that eel) reminds me of the Barbary Pirates of yore! He is a slimy little extortionist - pure and simple!

At a time when government is creating new ways to cut back on veterans services and benefits, they have also uncovered ways of helping to support some world-class stinking scum, and this Kim-Clown does live high off of the hog. He likes his booze, and he likes his babes. Maybe we can export a few DC Whores to North Korea so that this high heeled runt can keep his stable supplied?

And again, the next time that this ass hole (Kim) want's something, he will just start his nuclear program up again! "Rattling our saber and then falling to our knees is pure bull shit!"

If he wants a nuclear program, then by all means, let's give him one on the order of Nagasaki or Hiroshima - "NUKE THE LITTLE SHIT!"

"A couple of thousand nukes makes you a power, one (or a couple) merely make you a target, and this situation ain't going to make things any better, count upon it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"NOW WAS THAT DIPLOMATIC ENOUGH FOR YOU!!!!"

VERITAS

[Boats]

This is BS and all they want is for us to do is give them money so they can live higher on the hog.

[Seascamp]

The expression ?Money is King, the law far and the fist is near? would most likely be associated with one of our US gangland areas but is in fact a North Korean expression these days. Kyoto, Japan, has a large North Korean population and Kim Jung Il?s agents are there causing trouble for the Japanese Government and intimidating, extorting and bullying Koreans that still have relatives in North Korea.

As time passes and relatives simply vanish from the face of the earth, more Koreans that have first hand knowledge of what really is going on are willing to open up about the conditions and environment in North Korea. Some of it is quite surprising, some of it not.
Intense corruption comes with a Communist culture but the level in North Korea seems to even top Stalin?s Russia or Contemporary Vietnam and that is going a bunch, a big bunch. Here are some interesting tidbits:
In a nutshell, the wheels came off the North Korean economic system starting around 1987 and now to survive people must have some ?outlaw? activity or business going on and must pay a bribe to get a ?blind eye? and it appears most the country functions that way. Freelance garden plots are unplanned and are causing severe erosion and polluted rivers and a resultant loss of fish as a staple.

The average worker bee wage is around 160 won per month but a chicken costs 30 won, a rabbit 90 and a month?s supply of rice 210. The collectives are failing due to lack of transport or whatever so it is usual to a collective worker to go fiddle around and do face time during their assigned shift and then go work like crazy through the night on their own ?outlaw? garden plot or other money making activity.

Kyoto is to North Korea as Miami is to Cuba and in both instances there is a thriving black market of pilfered goods and packages being sent in from relatives and of course the respective governments are doing the pilfering and black marketeering, but not officially. But for a proper bribe, a North Korean can pick up an unmolested package, but this is not true of Cuba, they just grab and go.
All this and more has become known as the North Korean ?Ox Cart? economy and eclipses the formal and dysfunctional economy but is all corruption and bribe based.

The real powerhouse and the tough rind of Communist remains is the state security apparatus. Their role is to protect and preserve the state deity, Kim Jung Il, and in terms of death camps, forced labor camps, etc., I think they would make even Stalin retch. Very bad, unspeakably so. On the other hand they seem to care less about the corruption so long as it is not a threat to Kim Jong Il and they get their cut of the action. The local police civilian police are nearly useless and thus the growth of ?friends groups? that band together for protection against the criminal thugs. If a thug beats up and robs someone with a group, that group will bribe a cop to arrest the thug and for an additional bribe the cop will allow the friends group to beat the crap out of the thug and deaths in this way are not at all uncommon. Interesting stuff to read about and I have reason to belive it is authentic.

Scamp