North Korea Recriminations

NRO ^ | 4/14/2003 | Rich Lowry

[Utah Girl]

TOM DASCHLE
National Press Club, January 27, 2003
“But I clearly believe that the only way now for us to successfully deal with the North Koreans is to enter into direct talks, to make sure that we have people sitting across the table to address the concerns specifically enunciated by this administration -- and they can't do it too soon."

SEN. CARL LEVIN
March 5, 2003 Wednesday
"The administration says that we should move multilaterally, and of course that's always advisable. But the one thing that the -- all the nations, all our allies are in agreement on, the people with whom we would have the multilateral discussions and presumably multilateral strategy, they are all in agreement on one thing, and that is that the United States should have direct talks with North Korea. And despite the fact that we have that very direct advice from our allies, particularly explicitly from the new government of South Korea, this administration is refusing to do the one thing which all of our allies agree upon, which is that we should engage in direct talks with North Korea to try to make sure that they understand clearly what it is that is so troubling to us and our allies, to avoid miscalculation, and to get discussions back on track, to avoid a crisis from becoming an ever-deepening crisis on the peninsula."

BILL RICHARDSON
SHOW: CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN 22:00
February 6, 2003 Thursday
Richardson: “I think the solution, Aaron, is for there to be face-to-face talks, not gotiations to set up subsequent negotiations. I think what will cool this rhetoric, what will decompress this very, very delicate North Korea situation is face-to-face talks. That's what the North Koreans want. They don't want termediaries, they don't want to go to the United Nations. They don't want China and South Korea to talk to them. They want to talk to the United States. And I think it's reached the point where these direct talks make sense.”

HOWARD DEAN
The Hotline March 10, 2003 Monday
"HEADLINE: DEAN: GETS TOUGHEST QUESTIONING YET FROM RUSSERT
Ex-Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) appeared on "Meet the Press" to discuss his WH campaign, Iraq and North Korea. On if he would hold talks with North Korea: "Yes ... The North Koreans have asked for bilateral talks. I'm very happy to do that. My proposal would be that we will enter into bilateral talks, that they will agree to freeze their program now with verifiable inspection on the grounds. We will agree in writing not to attack them and then we will begin the negotiationprocess, both sides agreeing not to alter their status, the status of the non-aggression and the freezing of the nuclear program until bilateral negotiations have concluded."

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
AP, March 5
"Madeleine Albright, who spent two days in North Korea as secretary of state in October 2000, said direct talks with that country are necessary "in order to deliver the kinds of messages that we need to about the unacceptability of( (Pyongyang's) nuclear program." "Talking is not appeasement, talking is the way you deliver the message that you need to have received by the other side," she said."

TED KENNEDY
March 4, 2003 Tuesday
Sen. KENNEDY: “Well, I think the administration, Colin Powell should have direct conversations with the North Koreans. That is what is being urged by South Korea, Japan and our allies in the area. This is just a recommendation, not just of Democrats. Mr. Armitage has also, who's the deputy secretary of Defense, made that recommendation sometime ago. Ambassador Lilly made that recommendation. Brent Scowcroft has made that recommendation. And it's amazing that we're about to go to war with a country that does not have nuclear weapons, and we refuse to talk to a country that has already produced them."

Nicholas Kristoff
New York Times, Feb 28
"So the White House has hardened its position further, swatting away its old willingness to engage North Korea bilaterally within a multilateral setting. Now the administration has dropped the bilateral reference and is willing to talk to North Korea only in a multilateral framework that doesn't exist. The old approach had a snowball's chance in purgatory; now it's less than that."

Peter Breinart
“The administration would like observers to interpret its calm as steely resolve. But it actually signifies a refusal to face reality. The Bush administration says it wants multilateral talks with Pyongyang and a series of other countries, including South Korea, Russia, China, and Japan. The theory behind this approach is that only a united front among North Korea's neighbors can exert the pressure necessary to convince Kim Jong Il to turn back. But the diplomatic reality is that there is no united front. North Korea adamantly rejects multilateral talks, and South Korea, Russia, and China adamantly refuse to turn the screws. The Bush administration is paying the price for having helped fuel the anti-Americanism that elected an ultra-soft-line president in Seoul last December. And it cannot pull out all the diplomatic stops with Moscow and Beijing since its highest priority is convincing those governments not to veto an Iraq resolution at the Security Council. The unhappy result is that the United States is basically facing this crisis alone. Recognizing this diplomatic reality means accepting unconditional, one-on-one talks with Pyongyang.”

[Utah Girl]

Just getting ready to tell the Left "I told you so" on North Korea...This is from the Corner at NRO, by Rich Lowry, who collected the quotes.

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[goldstategop]

Especially now that the Left's discovered we can whip the Dear Leader's ass, they've fallen mercifully silent.

[Utah Girl]

Isn't that the truth. Now if we can just get Castro to quit oppressing his people, he's taken the opportunity to throw his opponents in prison.