Posted on 08/06/2009 5:10:28 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Seoul Still Baffled by Clinton's N.Korea Trip
The South Korea government was still reeling Wednesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton's surprise visit to North Korea.
A senior government official said, "The worst-case scenario for us would be to see the repetition of the nightmare of 1994." At the time, the South Korean government was completely left out in the cold as the U.S. and North Korea concluded the Geneva Agreed Framework in the wake of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's visit to Pyongyang.
Under the deal, South Korea had to bear most of the construction costs for a light-water reactor that was to be traded for the North's closure of its plutonium-producing nuclear plant in Yongbyon.
"It's important for us to maintain close cooperation with the U.S. to prevent us from being left out in the cold as in 1994," the official added.
But a Unification Ministry official said a repeat of that disaster is unlikely. "At the moment, North Korea is excited with memories of 1994, but it seems most likely that Clinton's visit was a kind of one-point relief pitch aimed at winning the release of the American journalists. We need to watch how Washington and Pyongyang will go ahead with their dialogue," he said.
His rationale was that Carter visited Pyongyang in 1994 expressly to find a solution to the nuclear issue, while Clinton visited to seek the release of the two U.S. reporters who had been sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country.
Especially, the government is concerned about the possibility of the critical public opinion seething over Seoul failing to seek the release of a South Korean man detained at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
A Cheong Wa Dae official claimed there had been a "sharing of views" between South Korea and the U.S. over humanitarian issues such as the female journalists under detention and the South Korean man held incommunicado at Kaesong before Clinton went to Pyongyang. "I believe there'll also be progress in the issue of the South Korean man under detention," he said.
So far, however, North Korea has said nothing about the man, identified as Yoo, who has been held incommunicado for 129 days, and the crew of a South Korean fishing boat 800 Yeonan towed to the North on July 30.
In a press briefing, the ministry said, "The government is watching closely how the release of the female journalists will affect the issues of the South Korean staffer at Kaesong or the Yeonan. It's still too early to judge what kind of effect their release will have on these issues."
Ping!
They shouldn't be.
Look at the treatment other allies are getting, Israel, Great Britain...........
Yet one more of our allies treated badly by Dingle Barry Obama. Gee, I wonder if the Great Leader Kim received an Ipod with Dingle Barry’s speeches on it?
When politic becomes a show and politicians show-men/women ,with a media/cinema industry in the tank, one can worry about freedom and civilization...Go on watching till...
Have we EVER seen Bill Clinton appear more dower than when he was photographed w Kim?
I believe he wasn’t happy being used as a pawn in this, and may have been aware of what the U.S. gave up in the course of providing Kim with this propaganda coup.
AND KIM JONG IL'S RESPONSE WAS TO IGNORE CLINTON.
Japanse are really pissed and jealous over this.
Hey, but North Korea got what it wanted. It was a mere business deal, girls used as pawns. They are masters at this--jacking the Americans around like puppets. The US, foolish dog returning to its vomit time and time again, thinking things will be different.
I am sure they needed not to be told, but before they left for Asia, no doubt the State Department urged them NOT to smile in any kind of photographs. At least we must have learned a thing or two about staged DPRK photos, from lessons such as the Pueblo. I noted the delegation was all tense and purposely avoided I think any particularly overly warm gestures or poses, except maybe when that little Norke girl gave them flowers on the tarmac.
I have read British newspaper and saw many such opinions. Liberal intellectuals feeling all warm and fuzzy about it.
He was chosen because ALGORE cannot lie worth a damn and Bill is the best liar ever. Lil'Kim is the big winner in this. So from now one just snatch a few Americans and demand something and it will be delivered.
BTW anybody heard ANY stories this week about the US Serviceman captured by the Towelaban? Thought not.
Bill went to deliver the ransom...and pick-up a couple of chicks like the horndog that he is!
Here's a big "up-yours" courtesy of the Obama/Clinton administration.
No doubt part of the memorandum of understanding with the Norkies, or handshake agreement, or whatever it was when the girls were still in custody, was that no derogatory comments would be made about the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, and in fact appreciation would be publicly expressed for the “pardon”. It was not too far from that. I am sure State Department, or Clinton “really cool staff” prepared those typed comments Ling read upon leaving the plane. Although she certainly did slip about their fear of going to a labor camp, so I am sure DPRK did not like that, but heck, they got what they wanted anyways. They could summon at their beckon call 1/2 around the world the former leader of the strongest nation on earth, to legitimize their dictator with a photo op, and otherwise be used like a little pawn at their whim. How absolutely HUMILIATING to the United States of America. Kim Jong il’s ear to ear grin said it all. We ate shit on this one. Big time.
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