North Korea Tests a Nuke
North Korea has finally exploded a nuclear warhead. Kim Jong Il has been saying for quite some time that he wanted to do it, and was going to do it. The Bush administration has refused to hold talks with the North Koreans to prevent such an event from occurring.
Now Kim Jong Il has done what he said he would do. At about 1:30 am EST, there was seismic activity centered near Kilju, a city near the Sea of Japan and approximately 60 miles from the Chinese border, in the Northern end of the country. This would be as if a nuclear test were done in Lockport, NY (about 10 miles from Lake Ontario) with another country’s border near Rochester, NY, located about an hour’s drive east on NYS 31A. These are the kinds of distances we are talking about. And this is where Bush’s stubbornness has brought us. Instead of talking with Kim Jong Il and doing what is necessary prevent an event such as this, he stamps his feet like a little kid and says, “No! I don’ wanna!”
Look at the facts:
In May, 1999, Clinton Defense Secretary William Perry visited North Korea to deliver a U.S. disarmament proposal. In September, Clinton eased economic sanctions against North Korea. By mid-month, North Korea pledged to freeze long-range missile tests. So in December, a U.S.-led consortium signed a $4.6 billion contract to build two Western-developed light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea for the express purpose of generating electricity.
What happened when Bush got into office?
2000: The building of the promised reactors was delayed. This prompts North Korea to threaten re-starting its nuclear weapons program.
2001: Bush refused to continue talks aimed at normalizing relations and lifting sanctions. North Korea resumes long-range missile testing it agreed to stop under Clinton.
2002: Bush names North Korea as part of the “Axis of Evil”. Later that year, North Korea admits to re-starting research toward making a nuclear weapon, and by years’ end removed the IAEA monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities. Kim Jong Il also expelled the watchdog agency’s inspectors, much to the chagrin of the rest of the world.
2003: North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and reactivates its nuclear power facilities. The IAEA board of governors declared North Korea in breach of atomic safeguards and referred the case to the U.N. Security Council. North Korea test fired missiles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. A senior U.S. official stated North Korea had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, suggesting they intended to produce nuclear weapons. The first six-party talks take place in August.
20004: The talks go on and off throughout the year, with North Korea finally offering to stop all nuclear activities in exchange for aid and being removed from the list of states sponsoring terrorism. Bush & Co. refuse, mounting more and more requirements on North Korea and increasing the tensions.
It goes downhill from there. Stalling, stonewalling, and saber-rattling by the US, steps forward by North Korea. Back and forth, back and forth. No talking though, until August 2005. In September of 2005, North Korea agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons, in return for aid and security guarantees. This was where the situation was when Clinton left office OVER FIVE AND A HALF YEARS EARLIER. This is important, so I will reiterate the point: it took Bush over five and a half years to get to the place where Clinton left Bush. And what resulted from that? An absolute “NO” by Bush & Co. They wanted more and wanted to give less.
Now this year, North Korea test fired some missiles, and while they failed, it showed North Korea was moving forward with their plans to have nuclear weapons. Late last week, it was announced that soon they would be ready for a nuclear test.
And today it happened: a nuclear bomb is detonated by North Korea.
So, now what? Is this the October surprise that Cheney was hinting at in mid-September? An international scare aimed at frightening the public into voting the Republicans back into office? Was this planned by the Bushies to happen right now, in order to secure a Republican majority in Congress for the final two years of Bush’s appointment as President? Or is this just another result of the Bush administrations total incompetence, another example of their inability to conduct international relations in a sane manner? Incompetence, I call it. I don’t think the administration is competent enough to orchestrate something like this, in order to maintain a Republican hold on Congress.
In any event, the Bushies have made a mess the relations between the US and North Korea. Clinton made progress, Bush made regress. He apparently doesn’t understand that in any relationship, it is highly important to have communications, and give and take. It doesn’t matter if it is a husband and wife, siblings, parent-child, worker-employer, friends or nations. It can’t be all one-sided, with one party dictating what the other party will do. Eventually, what happens is a breakdown and the relationship is severed, perhaps irrevocably. The Bushies kept making demands, and not agreeing to any middle ground. There was no give, only take, take, take.
We should be surprised by the result? Of course not. Personally, I blame Bush just as much as Kim Jong Il for the test that went on this morning. This could have been avoided, but unfortunately for the world, nothing constructive has been done in this arena since Clinton left office. It’s just another case of Bush making the world less safe for everyone.
