Posted on 04/02/2005 2:12:42 PM PST by rightalien
North Korea may be rattling its nuclear sword and threatening the U.S. and its allies, but former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg blames deteriorating relations on President Bush.
Gregg says Bush has a personal dislike for the North Korean dictator Kim Jong il -- an animosity that has skewed U.S. policy creating a crisis in the region.
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For sure, the criticism is coming from an unexpected source. Gregg is a former advisor to the first President Bush, an ex-CIA official who served as chief of station for the CIA in South Korea from 1973 to 1975. President George H.W. Bush appointed him as U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to 1993. In addition to charging the U.S. with "demonizing" North Korea, a regime that is allowing mass starvation among its people in order to finance its nuclear and military build-up, Gregg told Montana's Missoulian paper that although it is likely that North Korea does have nuclear weapons, the most they could be used for is self-defense.
Gregg seemed to dismiss both North Korea's threatening gestures -- and the fact it has test fired nuclear capable missiles towards Japan.
By demonizing North Korea, Gregg said, the Bush administration has an excuse to justify building an expensive missile defense program and creating an international bogeyman to justify alleged U.S. militancy.
This policy, he said, appears to be in direct contradiction of U.S. policy under Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. He recalled that during his most recent trip in August 2004, the North Korean officials he visited were anxious to know how to re-establish relations.
"They were saying, 'We've watched you go to war (in Iraq) on the basis of erroneous intelligence of weapons of mass destruction - we're concerned you might do the same with us,'" Gregg told the Missoulian's Rob Chaney. "They're wondering, 'How can we talk to the Americans when they think we're devils?'"
Gregg blamed what he sees as the problem on what he called Bush's personal dislike of North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Il, one of the world's most brutal dictators.
Gregg cited opposing views, including former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and South Korean officials who say that Kim Jong Il is more favorably inclined toward the United States than many others in his government.
"The stone in the road is President Bush's ad hominem animosity against Kim Jong Il," Gregg said. "I think he's hoping that pressure will bring about regime change. And it may well, and we may get someone much worse for our interests."
Said Gregg "Bush has created a face problem for himself. It's mystifying why Bush people don't take care of an issue that's much easier to deal with than, for example, the Middle East."
Gregg claimed that the South Koreans see big benefits in reunification, or at least normalized relations throughout the peninsula, and added that the Chinese have much to gain by spreading their influence along the Asian coast of the Pacific as well.
He said that South Korea already trades more with China than the United States and that the Russians see better ports and transportation systems to get their eastern natural resources to better markets. The major Russian city of Vladivostok sits near North Korea's northeastern border.
Gregg may have a slight conflict of interest in promoting North Korea's interests - he is now president of the Korea Society, a nonprofit agency arranging business and cultural contacts between the United States and both North and South Korea.
Here we go again: Bush lies & Big Business is evil
Kim Jong Il got a new best friend.
I guess he won't be so ronery any more....
Who could possibly dislike The Dear Leader?
If NK isn't worth of demonization no country is.
Garbage. It was the North Koreans who got up and walked away from the negotiating table, not us. It is the North Koreans who continue to push, antagonize, alienate, create dissension, and threaten. Kim has demonized himself and is now crying that it's the other fellow's fault. Utter garbage.
ooh, stop bweaking my bawls...
What an odd thing to write. Is this a criticism of Bush?
Maybe the problem is the brutal dictator. Exactly what did Bush41 and XXX42 accomplish by their policies?
How dare he demonize a state that has starved 2 million of its citizens to death and reduced millions more to cannibalism and eating grass!
Fire his a$$. Gregg is not there to advance a personal agenda or to propagate State Dept BS, he is there to represent this administrtion.
I touched on some of them - in a new essay
Having seen Gregg in action, the question that few can answer: Who is the bigger prima donna, Gregg or Kim Jong Il?
LOL, if W has a personal hatred for KJI, it simply shows that he his a just man who doesn't have his head lodged in his ***, unlike some Mr. Gregg.
Sounds like Donald Gregg has a vacuum between his ears.
Bush's fault?!?!?
You know the great thing about being a democrat? Not much memory is required. All you have to do is play the class warfare game and blame bush for everything.
That's their platform. One size fits all.
Of course it doesn't really work too well in elections but hey you can't have everything.
Gregg deserves an idiot award.
"Who could possibly dislike The Dear Leader?"
Exactly, what's to dislike about a ruthless, murdering despot that is systamically starving his people, while working to maintain an iron grip on a horribly corrupt family rule?
Yup. No doubt about it, its strictly a personal thing with Bush. The least he could do is pal up to this slug and be his best buddy in the interest of world peace, I'm mean, sheez! / Sar.
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