North Korea rejects as "laughable" US offer of multilateral security guarantee

Agence France-Presse | October 21, 2003

[HAL9000]

North Korea has dismissed as "laughable" a US offer of a multilateral security guarantee in exchange for an end to the Stalinist state's nuclear weapons drive.

"It is really a laughable thing which is not even worthy of consideration..." said North Korea's official North Korean Central Broadcasting Station in a commentary monitored here by Yonhap news agency.

It was North Korea's first reaction to US President George W. Bush's endorsement of a plan to offer written security assurances to North Korea from Washington's partners in six-party talks aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.

Bush, attending an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Bangkok on Monday and Tuesday, ruled out North Korea's demand for a bilateral non-aggression pact with the United States, which Pyongyang blames for the year-long nuclear crisis.

However, North Korean renewed its demand and said a non-aggression pact was the only peaceful way out of the nuclear crisis.

"If the United States is sincere in its wish to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully and to resume the six-way talks, it must drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and express its wish to sign a non-aggression treaty," the radio commentary late Tuesday said, according to Yonhap.

Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States held three days of inconclusive multilateral talks with North Korea in Beijing in late August. No date has been set for a resumption of the talks which North Koreas has since referred to as useless.

Speaking on Sunday in Bangkok, Bush rejected North Korea's demand for a non-aggression pact but for the first time endorsed offering the Stalinist state some form of written security guarantee backed by its partners in the six-party talks aimed at ending the standoff.

Bush said that a bilateral treaty pledging no US use of force is "off the table," but said he would explore other ways "to say exactly what I've said publicly on paper" -- that the United States has no plans to attack North Korea.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell was consulting with his counterparts on the form of such a deal. Powell floated the non-aggression proposal last week, only to have North Korea dismiss the offer as an "empty piece of paper" and say it would step up its nuclear weapons program as a result.

Following a meeting in Bangkok on Monday Bush and South Korean leader Roh Moo-Hyun called for a new round of talks with Pyongyang "at an early date" and urged the Stalinist state to shun any action that could "exacerbate the situation."

Their partners in the talks -- China, Russia and Japan -- expressed support for measures to reassure Pyongyang, but White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said it would "take some time" to finalize the plan.

North Korea's Central Broadcasting Station said the written security guarantee was not worthy of consideration.

"We have demanded the withdrawal of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and the conclusion of a non-agression treaty but we have not asked for anything like a written guarantee for security," it said, according to Yonhap news agency.

"It is really a laughable thing, which is not even worthy of consideration that the United States may give us the so-called security guarantee within a multilateral framework on condition that we abandon nuclear deterrence.

"The reason that the United States is bragging about this security guarantee within a multilateral framework is that it is aiming to mislead the fair world opinion that calls for the United States to shift away from its hostile policy toward the DPRK and to sign a non-aggression treaty."

[HAL9000]

"If the United States is sincere in its wish to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully and to resume the six-way talks, it must drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and express its wish to sign a non-aggression treaty," the radio commentary late Tuesday said, according to Yonhap.

Throw in regime change in Pyongyang, and we've got a deal.

[Unknowing]

The NK regime perhaps wishes to disconnect the security agreement from nuclear arms desistance. The last gasp of diplomacy with these fiends might be to disconnect the two "separate" issues, give them the six-nation no-first-strike guarantee, and then, a short time later, play the hard line with the nukes. How about that for optimism?

[Pro-Bush]

[Tactical]

What those boys need is a good old fashioned "Butt kickin'!", perhaps a second term for Bush will bring that about?

[Drammach]

How this?

We bomb the crap out of them, then talk.

Seriously.

Bomb anything that even looks like it's military.
Give 'em a week to surrender.
Bomb 'em again.
Tell South Korea to go in and clean up.

Hey, Seriously.... ;oP