Category: North Korea

The Two Koreas: Prospects for the Future

POST: Catching up with the Kims, Thomas P.M. Barnett on October 22, 2008

My years-old diagnosis for the second Bush term remains valid: deal with Iran, push North Korea’s collapse.

 ARTICLE: Forget not their abominations, By Václav Havel and Kjell Magne Bondevik, September 19, 2008

… we must not lose sight of the fact that the North Korean government remains responsible for one of the most staggering human-rights and humanitarian disasters in the world.

The world cannot continue to postpone discussion of these critical issues. We owe it to the people of North Korea to finally take action to alleviate their misery.

nKorea: Accommodation is not Progress

Settling With North Korea
(Washington Post)…Editorial, October 15, 2008, Pg. 20

…Under the circumstances, keeping its nuclear complex shut for the next few months may be worth the political bribe delivered by the State Department. But no one — especially not the next U.S. president — should mistake this accommodation for genuine progress toward the goal of disarming what remains a dangerous, and terrorist, state. 

nKorea: Disarmament, Negotiations …

Headline News …

Envoy Pushes To Save Deal On Disarming North Korea
(New York Times)…Helene Cooper
The Bush administration’s top envoy for North Korea, Christopher R. Hill, extended his trip to Pyongyang on Wednesday as negotiators from both sides searched for a way to salvage a nuclear disarmament deal that the White House had hoped to portray as a major achievement. 

North Korea Upgrading Missile Test Site: Report
(Reuters.com)…Reuters
North Korea has been upgrading the facilities at the site of its past missile tests in what may be preparations for another long-range missile launch, a news report said on Thursday quoting government sources.

The World Shouldn’t Fear The Collapse Of North Korea
(Wall Street Journal)…John R. Bolton and Nicholas Eberstadt
…In both Washington and Pyongyang, voices have been raised essentially arguing that a regime crisis is the last thing we should want. But is the stability of an internationally criminal, cruelly dictatorial, nuclear-weapons-equipped North Korea really something we should value above all conceivable alternatives?

N. Korea Reportedly Fires Missile Into Yellow Sea
(Washingtonpost.com)…Associated Press
North Korea has fired a short-range missile into the Yellow Sea, media reports said Tuesday.

Nuclear Inspectors Barred From Site In N. Korea
(New York Times)…Helene Cooper, October 10, 2008, Pg. 16

North Korea heightened pressure on the Bush administration on Thursday by barring international inspectors from all parts of its Yongbyon nuclear complex, even as administration officials said they believed that they were close to a deal to end a stalemate with the North over its nuclear program.

U.S., N. Korea May Be Reaching Deal In Nuclear Negotiations
(FNC)…Jennifer Griffin, October 9, 2008 .
There is a possibility that North Korea’s main argument with the U.S. in the nuclear negotiations may soon be resolved. Meanwhile, North Korea is making more noise about restarting its main reactor.

nK: Census

Census Planned in North Korea, Washington Post
September 28, 2008, Pg. 21

North Korea said it will conduct a census next month that is believed to be its first in 15 years, adding that the Oct. 1-15 survey will collect data about dozens of social and economic indicators.

nK Proposes Military Talks

North Proposes Military Talks, (Washington Times)…Unattributed, September 27, 2008
Pg. 8

 

SEOUL–North Korea has proposed holding military talks with South Korea in what would be the first official contact between the countries since Seoul’s new conservative government took office in February, a defense official said Friday.

The overture comes amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s decision to abandon a disarmament-for-aid pact and to begin reassembling its nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon. Earlier this week, North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear monitors to leave the country and said it would reinsert nuclear material into a plutonium-producing facility within a week, causing alarm among its neighbors.

The North sent a message Thursday proposing the talks, and the South Korean government is discussing whether to accept the offer, an official at South Korea’s Defense Ministry said late Friday. The message was Pyongyang’s first official proposal for talks since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s administration took office in February with a pledge to get tougher on the North. The North responded by suspending all government-level talks with the South.

nK: Nuclear Program

Far-Reaching U.S. Plan Impaired N. Korea Deal(Washington Post)…Glenn Kessler, Sept, 26, 2008

The unraveling of the landmark deal to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs began just weeks after its high point — the televised destruction of the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in late June — when U.S. negotiators presented Pyongyang with a sweeping plan for verifying its claims about its nuclear programs.

nK: 6PT, Anniversary Parade

Lack Of Written Agreement Snags Pyongyang Talks
(Washington Times)…Nicholas Kralev
The Bush administration may have contributed to the latest impasse with North Korea by failing to get a written agreement that links Pyongyang’s removal from the U.S. terrorist blacklist to a plan to verify the country’s nuclear disarmament.

 

N. Korean Military Parade To Mark Anniversary
(USA Today)…Unattributed
North Korea plans to stage a military parade today in Pyongyang to mark the communist state’s 60th anniversary, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae Jae said. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the parade would be North Korea’s largest in terms of number of troops and military hardware.