Sierra Mike
01-09-2003, 12:54 PM
Lending some credence to my previous jag on a possible attack on the DPRK following Iraq, this surfaces today:
Jan. 9 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell held out the prospect yesterday of a settlement with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programs that would include formal assurances the United States has no plans to attack the communist state.
“We have made it clear we have no aggressive intent,” Powell said, one day after the Bush administration said it is willing to have face-to-face talks with the government in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. “Apparently, they want something more than a passing statement.”A perhaps more telling slice comes from the end of the article:
North Korea has indicated through these indirect talks that it wants the United States to send a relatively senior official, higher than an assistant secretary of state, to begin formal discussions, the official added.I think this more than just about saving face, as what the dandies over at The Asia Times would purport. I do think the DPRK feels imperiled; clearly, their society is ripe for busting apart at the seams. We've seen how violent protests in the South can get, to the point to where US soldiers are directly menaced. I would submit (and I daresay I'm not far off the mark here) that, if the DPRK was not such an awesome military power and its people so bereft of even hope, that a popular uprising would have sent Kim Jong Il packing long ago. Sufficient posturing by the US would likely aid and abet such "reformist" sentiments that the DPRK would not only find itself facing the long guns of the West, but also the short knives of its own people.
Anyway. Read all about it at
US Weighs Assurances for North Korea (http://www.msnbc.com/news/856911.asp?0bl=-0)
SM
Jan. 9 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell held out the prospect yesterday of a settlement with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programs that would include formal assurances the United States has no plans to attack the communist state.
“We have made it clear we have no aggressive intent,” Powell said, one day after the Bush administration said it is willing to have face-to-face talks with the government in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. “Apparently, they want something more than a passing statement.”A perhaps more telling slice comes from the end of the article:
North Korea has indicated through these indirect talks that it wants the United States to send a relatively senior official, higher than an assistant secretary of state, to begin formal discussions, the official added.I think this more than just about saving face, as what the dandies over at The Asia Times would purport. I do think the DPRK feels imperiled; clearly, their society is ripe for busting apart at the seams. We've seen how violent protests in the South can get, to the point to where US soldiers are directly menaced. I would submit (and I daresay I'm not far off the mark here) that, if the DPRK was not such an awesome military power and its people so bereft of even hope, that a popular uprising would have sent Kim Jong Il packing long ago. Sufficient posturing by the US would likely aid and abet such "reformist" sentiments that the DPRK would not only find itself facing the long guns of the West, but also the short knives of its own people.
Anyway. Read all about it at
US Weighs Assurances for North Korea (http://www.msnbc.com/news/856911.asp?0bl=-0)
SM